The City of Architecture exhibits images of the City of Light, when it was popular and picturesque.
The great flood of the Seine in 1910, the strange silhouette of statues protected by sandbags at Place de la Nation in 1914, brothels in the dark alleys of old Paris… It’s a real journey through time! The City of Architecture exhibits part of the Albert-Kahn collection, which shows the popular and picturesque city, images on the verge of disappearing before the passage of Baron Haussmann. Albert Kahn is not the author but the producer: for twenty years, this former banker turned philanthropist missioned photographers and filmmakers to document the world, from India to America.
“The Archives of the Planet” includes 72,000 autochromes, 4,000 stereoscopic plates and hundreds of hours of film which he shows to political and artistic personalities of his time in his living room. Friend of Henri Bergson, curious and cultivated humanist, he puts his life at the service of the idea of universal peace. His Boulogne house, which has become the Albert-Kahn museum, will soon reopen its doors with a new building by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma.
“Paris 1910-1937. Walks in the Albert-Kahn collections”, City of architecture, until July 5.
Any reproduction prohibited–
