Views of Luxembourg and the Orient - Francis Frith an Victorian Photography

Views of Luxembourg and the Orient.Francis Frith and VictorianPhotography. Ed. by Nadine AbelEsslingen ; with contributions fromNadine Abel-Esslingen, MartinBarnes, Claude D. Conter and JuliaSkinner.256 pages / 25 / ISBN 978-99959-928-4-2The National Library of Luxembourg (BnL)presents two very different sceneriesphotographed in the 19th century related toFrancis Frith: the picturesque neighbour-hoods of Luxembourg, a small country inEurope, and the grand archaeological sites inthe mysterious distant Orient. These placeswere captured by the new medium of thetime, photography, which according toFrancis Frith portrays the world truthfully. His emphasis on the truthfulness of photography,however, ignores the subjectivity involved in the decision of what to shoot.In 1880, a photo collection, which showed 11 views of Luxembourg City and its low towntaken in three different formats, was published by the bookshop Pierre Brück. The newspaperLuxemburger Wort pointed out in an article on 13th March 1880 that the collection showedsome of the most beautiful spots of the city. Francis Frith & Co, a photographic companynamed after its renowned founder and Victorian photographer Francis Frith, took thesephotos. Predicting the growth of tourism, Frith set out to photograph every city, town andlandscape in Britain. He further developed his clever commercial idea by commissioningphotographers to go to the four corners of the globe.Through Friths essays and quotes, we discover in this catalogue the photographers concept,the difficulties presented by the new medium and the context in which the photos wereproduced.