Albert Kahn (3 March 1860 – 14 November 1940) was a French banker and philanthropist, known for initiating '' The Archives of the Planet'', a vast photographical project. Spanning 22 years, it resulted in a collection of 72,000 colour photographs and 183,000 metres of film.

Biography

Early life

He was born Abraham Kahn in

Marmoutier :''See Marmoutier Abbey (Tours) for the former abbey in Tours.'' Marmoutier (; ) is a commune in the Bas-Rhin département in Grand Est in north-eastern France. The origin of the place is the former Marmoutier Abbey, of which the abbey church st ...

Bas-Rhin Bas-Rhin (; Alsatian: ''Unterelsàss'', ' or '; traditional german: links=no, Niederrhein; en, Lower Rhine) is a department in Alsace which is a part of the Grand Est super-region of France. The name means 'Lower Rhine', referring to its low ...

, France on 3 March 1860, the eldest of four children of Louis Kahn, a Jewish cattle dealer and Babette Kahn (née Bloch), an uneducated homebound mother. Kahn's mother died when he was ten years old, and, following the German annexation of Alsace-Lorraine in 1871, the Kahn family moved to

Saint-Mihiel Saint-Mihiel () is a commune in the Meuse department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. Geography Saint-Mihiel lies on the banks of the river Meuse. History A Benedictine abbey was established here in 708 or 709 by Count Wulfoalde and his wif ...

in north-eastern France in 1872 where he continued his studies at the Collège de Saverne from 1873 to 1876. In 1879, Kahn became a bank clerk in Paris, but studied for a degree in the evenings. His tutor was

Henri Bergson Henri-Louis Bergson (; 18 October 1859 – 4 January 1941) was a French philosopherHenri Bergson. 2014. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 13 August 2014, from https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/61856/Henri-Bergson

, who became his lifelong friend. He graduated in 1881 and continued to mix in intellectual circles, making friends with

Auguste Rodin François Auguste René Rodin (12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor, generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a uniqu ...

and

Mathurin Méheut Mathurin Méheut (21 May 1882 – 22 February 1958) was a French painter, ceramist, engraver, and etcher best known for his depictions of Breton scenes, the sea, and nature. Méheut was born into a family of artisans in Lamballe, Brittany, and ap ...

. In 1892 Kahn became a principal associate of the Goudchaux Bank, which was then regarded as one of the most important financial houses of Europe. He also promoted higher education through travelling scholarships.

Later life

The economic crisis of the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

ruined Kahn and put an end to his project. Kahn died at

Boulogne-Billancourt Boulogne-Billancourt (; often colloquially called simply Boulogne, until 1924 Boulogne-sur-Seine, ) is a wealthy and prestigious Communes of France, commune in the Parisian area, located from its Kilometre zero, centre. It is a Subprefectures in ...

Hauts-de-Seine Hauts-de-Seine (; ) is a Departments of France, département in the Île-de-France Regions of France, region, Northern France. It covers Paris's western inner Banlieue, suburbs. It is bordered by Paris, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne to the e ...

, France on 14 November 1940 during the

Nazi occupation of France The Military Administration in France (german: Militärverwaltung in Frankreich; french: Occupation de la France par l'Allemagne) was an interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II to administer the occupied zo ...

Gardens of the World

The Gardens of the World (french: links=no, Les Jardins du Monde) was a garden Kahn created. In 1893 he acquired a large property in

, where he established this unique garden containing a variety of garden styles including

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

, a rose garden and a conifer wood. This became a meeting place for French and European

intelligentsia The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the in ...

until the 1930s when, due to the

Crash of 1929 The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange colla ...

, Kahn became bankrupt. At that time the garden was turned into a public park in which Kahn would still take walks. The garden brings together distinct traditions (French, English and Japanese), as if to illustrate the utopia of a world reconciled, where different realities can coexist in perfect harmony.

''Archives of the Planet''

The ''Archives of the Planet'' (french: links=no, Les Archives de la Planète) was a photographic endeavour to document buildings and cultures around the world.

Method

In 1909, Kahn travelled with his chauffeur and photographer, Alfred Dutertre, to Japan on business and returned with many photographs of the journey. This prompted him to begin a project collecting a photographic record of the entire Earth. He appointed Jean Brunhes as the project director, and sent photographers to every continent to record images of the planet using the first practical medium for colour photography, Autochrome plates, and early

cinematography Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography. Cinematographers use a lens to focu ...

. Between 1909 and 1931 they collected 72,000 colour photographs and 183,000 meters of film. These form a unique historical record of 50 countries, known as ''The Archives of the Planet''. Kahn's photographers began documenting France in 1914, just days before the outbreak of World War I, and by liaising with the military managed to record both the devastation of war and the struggle to continue everyday life and agricultural work.

Musée Albert-Kahn

Since 1986, the photographs have been collected into a museum at 14 Rue du Port,

, Paris, at the site of his garden. It is now a French national museum and includes four hectares of gardens, as well as the museum which houses his historic photographs and films.

References

* * *
Albert Kahn
Biograph

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080204015212/http://www.hauts-de-seine.net/portal/site/hds/decouverte-paris-92/idees-sortie/week-end-decouverte-92/750/52700c880d936110VgnVCM100000860aa8c0RCRD.vhtml Albert Kahn gardens] Official websit
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(also
Ministry of Culture summaryTranslate
*
Albert Kahn museum, the new official website
o
old link
*
Maghreb in colors
Exhibition until March 2008, Official website
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* Castro, Teresa

The story of Kahn's photographic atlas (accessed November 2007)

External links

Edwardians In Colour: The Wonderful World Of Albert Kahn
– BBC TV programme April 2007 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kahn, Albert French bankers French expatriates in Japan French philanthropists 19th-century French Jews Pioneers of photography Alsatian Jews People from Bas-Rhin 1860 births 1940 deaths