May 26-June 1, 2005

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Persian Pictorial

by John Vettese

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A century ago, when Western photography studios consisted of glass plate negatives and extremely potent chemicals, Antoin Sevruguin found himself an unwitting documentarian of cultural shifts in the East. Owner of one of Iran's first public portrait studios during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Sevruguin also served as court photographer under two shahs until his death in 1933. His tremendous access to the new medium allowed the expeditious cameraman to create a visual time capsule of his hometown of Tehran — studio shots of veiled women with pearls, ornate palace interiors, the deep convergence of a tree-lined avenue with one pedestrian traveling down the center. About three dozen of these photographs make up "Antoin Sevruguin and the Persian Image," on display at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology through the beginning of July. In addition to fanciful commissioned work, Sevruguin also used his photography to document the collision of tradition and modernity in turn-of-the-century Iran. In the 1890 shot Gaz Street, horse-drawn wagons on Tehran's main drag contend with the newly installed streetcar system. But the pace of change in Iran had a more distressing result than scuffed hoofs and shaken luggage. It is estimated that over 7,000 of Sevruguin's glass negatives were destroyed during the Iranian civil unrest beginning in 1908. The photos on display at Penn come from a Smithsonian collection of only 800 surviving pieces.

"Antoin Sevruguin and the Persian Image," through July 2, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 3260 South St., 215-898-4000, www.museum.upenn.edu.