Many years ago, between 1859 and 1905, a select group of photographers travelled to the Middle East to photograph this place full of mysteries and still basically unknown to the people of the West. Unfortunately not many pictures have survived until today of these long and risky trips, but a project researcher from New York named Clark Worswick has collected images from this period that has managed to stand the test of time.
Javier Varela, MuVIM director, said the first time he saw the pictures the first thing that came to mind was “East.” As he explained “The orient is mysterious, ancient, sensual and deep. The pictures are very beautiful and precisely for this reason we decided to display them for the benefit of MuVIM´s public.” The exhibition is called” Gardens of Sand: commercial photography in the Middle East 1859-1905 and is displayed in the main hall of the museum.
In the exhibition you can see places like Tangier, Tunis, Alexandria, Cairo, Jerusalem, Damascus, Mecca, Beirut and Istanbul. In these photographs, these cities can be seen as the symbols they once were, reflecting a past which has since been lost but not forgotten.
According to the Valencian deputy of culture Salvador Enguix, this exhibit is especially interesting because this will be the first time these images, which all form part of a private collection, are shown to the public.
The exhibition runs through Oct. 12 in the Alfons Roig hall of MuVIM and visitors can enjoy all the mysteries of the East as captured by the cameras of different photographers who travelled between 1859 and 1905. If you want to attend you can rent apartments in Valencia and find out all the secrets of one of the most curious areas of the world.
September 9th, 2010 at 11:16 am
http://www.whattoseeinvalencia.com/mysteries-of-the-orient/