Introduction

A Beloved photographer, in Iran and in the west,Antoin Sevruguin,a popular photographer of late nineteenth century Iran.

The collection makes clear why he was such a popular and respected photographer.In a miraculous way Sevruguin managed to visualise almost all aspects of Iranian society.

Even after his death, the pictures of the originally Russian Sevruguin remained popular in the west and his studio, which for some years was continued by his daughters,was still strongly recommended.A sign of increasing interest in early photography in Iran is the publication by Yahya Zoka of Tarikh-e Akassi va Akassan Pishgam dar Iran(History of Photography and pioneer photographers in Iran),Tehran,1997,that contains many pictures and biographies of the famous Iranian pioneers in the field of photography.Sevruguin's oeuvre makes up an important section of this book and it shows that his name is not forgotten in Iran.perhaps because he was born circa 1840 in the Russian Embassy in Tehran and he spent some of his early years in the country ,Sevruguin was a great admirer of Iran and the Iranians.

After his education as a painter and following a course of photography with the famous Russian photographer Dmitri Iwanowitsch Jermakov in tiflis, he decided to return to Iran , together with his brother Emanuel and Kolia, to document all aspects of cultural life in Iran.

This idea was not exceptional in the nineteenth century. Soon after the discovery of photography and the almost simultaneous appearance of sciences like archaeology, ethnology and geography, there was an enormous demand to collect information about these subjects.photography, in a spectacular and exciting way, broadened the view of many nineteenth century persons. Until then people who didn't travel mainly had to rely on engravings to imagine cities, Historical Buildings, works of art and landscape, that were far away from their own world. Immediately after its discovery photography was used on a large scale, beacuse people realised the future benefits of this new medium, such as it being true to nature, sharpness, clearness and richness of detail. In Russia, where Sevruguin was living at that time, many photographers went out to make pictures of different ethnic groups. Societies even gave instructions on how they should do this: portraits of the whole face,the profile and the whole body were required for Scientific purposes.

The photographs emphasised and glorified the size and the ethnic plurality of the Russian empire.Jermakov was also active in this field and probably inspired Sevruguin to do the same in Iran.Having the idea was maybe not exceptional, but the execution of their plan, the travelling to Iran and the making of the photographs certainly was and indicates perseverance, daring and sheer force of will. Travelling in the nineteenth century and before asked for elaborate preparations and organisation.Good roads, transport,hotels and restaurants were not always present. Someareaswere almost impassable, because of bandits or troublesome tribes.Traveling photographers furthermore had to cope with the burden of heavy and bulky equipment; next to camera and tripod they had to carry with them prepared glass plates, a dark room and chemicals. Traveling alone was not possible.

The difficulties with developing and fixing were numerous and there was always the risk of the plates being damaged by transport accidents,sand or insects.Around 1870 Sevruguin and his brother kolia and Emanuel Joined a big caravan to Iran and after their arrival settled in the city of Tabriz. After some time they opened a photographic studio in the Khiabon Ala ud-Dowleh(later Ferdowsi Avenue) in Tehran.Antoin was the artist and his brothers were the busineessmen of the enterprise.In the course of his career Sevruguin managed to build up a collection of around 7.000 glass negatives. photographs of this collection are to be found in the Bosschart collection. This collection consists of pictures of shahs of the kadjar dynasty and their relative, pictures of ancient monuments,such as: perspolis and Naghsh-e Rostam, of daily life,of ethnographical interest, of men and women in their specific dresses from for example Kourdestan and Lourestan, as well as pictures of Armenians.

Also to be found in this collection are 'erotic' or so called'Harem images' of women with bare legs, making music, laying down or dancing. All picture have, as was usual, a negative number, scratched into the glass. In the earlier pictures these numbers are quite large, later they become much smaller and put in inconsipicuous places such as stones, a tree or the hem of a coat. Sevruguin also used an impress, or he put his signature in the negative.

The Bosschart collection tells us as much about Sevruguin as about his clients and their wishes or demands, because Sevruguin was a highly commercial photographer.Many of his photographs were staged and specially made for tourists, as nineteenth century travellers usually didn't take pictures themselves, but tended to purchase them locally to compile a souvenir album of their journeys.As travellers didn't have much of an objective image of Iran,but a western image, much influenced by romantic orientalism, commercial photographers were keen to provide them with images fitting these views. Sevruguin too obliged his clients by highlighting some aspects of Iranian culture, such as the life of women, religious and cultural customs, festivities and methods of punishing.

He made images of men and women in a variety of dresses, colourful people with different religious backgrounds, and with occupations that were considered being typically eastern. So in his pictures we find carpet-weavers, felt-makers,street-dealers,criminals being punished, beggars and tribesmen.Sevruguin managed to get access to all layers of society, maybe he lived in tehran for many years and was married to an Iranian Armenian wife, with whom he had seven children.But most likely because he was such a skilled professional and this was appreciated by many. Due to his special portrait photographs he became an official court-photographer of Nasser ud-din Shah and his successors, including Reza Shah(1925-1941).Next to the Shah and his family many notables from the Tehran elite and important tribal chiefs were his customers.Not only tourists and private persons were interested in Sevruguin's work; there were Museums and researchers purchasing his work .His pictures are to be found in many scientific publications of the time and when his name is mentioned it's likely to be spelled wrongly.

This was often to his disappointment,although his artwork was recognised at international photographic exhibitions,where he received awards and medals, as happend at the exhibitions in brussels in 1897 and in paris in 1900.The shah honoured him with the titel'khan' and decorated him with the sun and lion.The medals of brussels and paris and his title he showed on his photographic papers.In tehran people would usually refer to him as 'Antoin Khan'nd because of his admiration and affection for Iran he would himself add'parvarde-ye-Iran'(nourished by Iran) to his name.Not really present in the Bosschart collection are examples of his journalistic photographs inwhich he gave an image of political life in Tehran. Famous are his pictures of the funeral of Nasser ud-din Shah and the execution of criminals or political activits and later of the revolution. His photographs have a unque and remarkable atmosphere and diffusion of light, For which he had a special interest and which is often very clearly present. His studio portraits arecharacterised by a diagonal or a heavenly light , that sometimes gives to the portrayed a devoteexpression.Also his outdoor-pictures have a free and natural atmosphere, because of the way he used the light .Although exposure time was relatively long and some outdoor pictures were clearly staged, they almost seem to be snapshots. Next to photography Sevruguin had a keen interest in painting and the study of traditionalIranian painting.It's known that he was an admirer of the work of the miniature painters Behzad and Reza-Abassi, and of european painter, especially the impressionists and most of all the dutch seventeenth century painter rembrandt. The paintings of the latter probably had aprofound influence on his own work. Unlike the'repoussoirs' such as carpets, cloths or screens with western decorations, tables and curtains used by every photographer, the way he made use of the light was unique amongst the western photographers in Iran. In the year 1908 full of political unrest and fight the Sevruguin family was confronted with difficulties, becuse of connections with the consitutional movement.

The family had to take refuge at the british embassy. Althought being a Russian sevruguin preferred the British embassy above the russian, because the latter supported the reactionary movement. Many houses of supporters of the consititution were looted and the house next to Sevruguin's studio was bombed.This caused mayor damage to his collection of glass negatives: only 2.000 out of 7.000 glass negatives could be saved.

After this event Sevruguin stopped his expedition into the countryside for talking pictures and he restricted himself to studio-work.He aimed for perfection and tried to record the personality of the portrayed. At the time of Reza Sha's government the remaining glass negative were confiscated because according to the shah they visualised and represented an outdated Iran. This meant the end to a once lucrative enterprise. Sevruguin died aged in his nineties and was buried in the family grave in Tehran.For the last three or four years of his life his daughter mary had managed the studio, while he preferred to live in seclusion.Marysucceeded in getting back part(696 negatives)of the confiscated collection and she bequeathed these to the American presbyterian mission in Tehran, In 1951-1952 these negative were purchased by the myron bement smith archive,Smithsonian institution, washington,where they still make up a wonderful and valuable collection.Thebosschart collectionpresents us with a unique image of the Iranian 'fin de si cle'. Its history is described elsewhere in this book.Sevruguin did not only, like other western photographers,record the transient Iran but also captured in his pictures the changing and new iran.He left us a beautiful visual image of the late kadjar epoch(1870-1930),a period in which iran re-entered the international platform and that saw enormous changes in all aspects of society.

The Bosschart collection is a valuable visual documentation of the history of these years and the history of photography in iran.As such it offers us unique possibilities for further study.

Corien J.M. Vuurman from the book "Sevruguin's Iran" by the National Museum of Ethnology in leiden, the Netherlands.

Bosschart collection; The main photographic collection of the Rijksmuseum voor volkenkunde (National Museum of Ethnology), Leiden,consists of about 5.000 photographs. The collection was made between 1867 and 1920.Within this collection there is a sub-collection of 179 photographs(nos.3192-3370)taken in Iran at the end of the 19th century. The images consist of photographs and glass negatives(13*18 cm).This collection is known as the bosschart collection,after the man who acquired the materials, Willem lodewijk bosschart(1859-1929)