s early cameras began spreading out from Europe in the middle of the 19th century, photography became an increasingly powerful medium for obtaining and disseminating information about the wider world.
People and places that had previously only been captured through art or in written accounts could suddenly be depicted with unprecedented accuracy. With this new medium, local administrators and commercial photography studios, in cities from Hong Kong to Calcutta, helped build a richer visual history of life in the 1800s.
Now, a new exhibition at the Louvre Abu Dhabi has brought together 250 of the earliest known photographs from the Middle East, Asia, Africa and the Americas, the oldest of which dates back to 1842. Titled "Photographs: An Early Album of the World," it's the first dedicated photography show to be held at the Emirati outpost of the famous French museum.
CNN asked the show's curator, Christine Barthe, to pick 10 images from the collection and explain what they reveal about the places -- and times -- they were taken in.
View of the Holy Shrine and the city of Mecca, present-day Saudi Arabia, 1881
Muhammad Sadiq Bey, a surveyor and engineer with the Egyptian army, is believed to have taken the very first photographs of Mecca and Medina, and the religious sites surrounding the two cities. For many Muslims, his images offered the first detailed glimpse of the Great Mosque and the shrine at its center, the Kaaba, which is considered the holiest site in Islam.
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As well as showing the condition of the mosque and the architecture of Mecca at that time, this photograph was included in the exhibition because it recognizes the work of a pioneer who "deserves a better place in global history of photography," Barthe said.
"We don't know so much about the history of photography outside Europe and the USA, so many of these first important photographers aren't too well known," she explained in a phone interview. "Sadiq Bey is a good example of this. You won't find his name in a traditional history, so (his inclusion was informed by) the simple idea of shining a light on his work.
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