Wednesday, January 10, 2018

ALVAND KUH BY FREDERIC GADMER


FREDERIC GADMER (1878-1954)
Alvand Kuh (3,580 m - 11,750 ft)
Iran

 In Alvan Kuh at sunset, Autochrome Lumière, 1927, Musée Départemental Albert Kahn 

The mountain 
Alvand  Alwand or Alvand Kuh  (3,580 m - 11,750 ft) is one the most famous mountain of Iran. It is  located near Hamedan, west of Iran. Mountain of Alvand belong to pro-Zagros range mountains. IIts summit  consists mainly of intrusive rocks (granite, granitoid and diorite). The range bears a trilingual ancient inscription (Neo Elamite, Neo Babylonian and Old Persian) of King Darius the great and king Xerxes I, called Ganj Nameh, 10km south of Hamadan. To reach Alvand Kuh, travel in Iran to Hamedan. From Tehran to Hamedan (330 km) takes 5.5 hours by bus. You can stay in Hamedan a few days. Hamedan is oldest alive city of the world. It was the first capital of Persia (700-530 BC). Take a taxi in the city and go to Ganj-Nameh (5 km from the city center).

The photographer
Frédéric Georges Gadmer was born in 1878 in France into a Protestant family; his father, Leon, son of Swiss émigré, was confectioner. Before World War II, he follows his family in Paris and works as a photographer for the house Vitry, located Quai de la Rapée. As an heliogravure company, it performs work for the sciences and the arts, travel and education. In 1898 Gadmer completed his military service as a secretary to the staff then recalled in 1914 at the time of mobilization. In 1915, he joined the newly created  "Photographic Section of the Army" and carried pictures on the front, in the Dardanelles, with General Gouraud, then in Cameroon. In 1919, at age 41, he was hired as a photographer by Albert Khan for his project called "Archives of the Planet". He finds there his comrades of  "the film and photographic section of the army" Paul Castelnau and Fernand Cuville. Soon as he arrived, he made reports in Syria, Lebanon, Turkey and Palestine. It was the first to make a color portrait of Mustafa Kemal, leader of the Young Turks. In 1921, he returned to the Levant with Jean Brunhes, the scientific director of the Archives of the Planet. The same year, he attended General Gouraud, appointed High Commissioner in Syria. Operator and prolific photographer, specializing in distant lands and landscapes, it covers Iraq, Persia, Afghanistan, Algeria and Tunisia. In 1930, he accompanied Father Francis Aupiais in Dahomey. He also works in Europe. In 1931, at the request of Marechal Lyautey, he photographies the Colonial Exhibition. It is one of the last person to leave the "Archives of the Planet" threatened by the Albert Kahn's bankruptcy in 1932. He then worked at the famous french newspaper L'Illustration and carries postcards for Yvon. He died in Paris, unmarried, in 1954.

About the  "Autochrome Lumière" Photos
The autochrome is a photographic reproduction of process colors patented December 17, 1903 by Auguste and Louis Lumière french brothers. This is the first industrial technique of photography colors, it produces positive images on glass plates. It was used between 1907 and 1932 approximately an particularly in many pictures of the World War I. A important number of photographs of mountains and landscapes around the world was made with this technique, particularly in the for  the Project "The archives of the planet" by Albert Kahn.