Behind the Scenes of the Archive and Photograph: Fonds Godard, musée du Louvre, Paris

Featuring Alejandra Tafur Manrique and Martina Massullo, a film by Keelan Overton

*After this film was completed and approved, and just before publication, the film and related images had to be removed at the request of the Louvre. We hope that we will be able to re-add this material in the future.

The André and Yedda Godard Archives at the musée du Louvre in Paris (map) (website) consist of about 13,000 photographs and 2,500 written documents and is one of the most important archives of Iranian architecture outside of Iran. For over four decades (1928–60), the Godards lived and worked in Iran and played an important role in the preservation, publication, and presentation of the country’s cultural heritage (see their page in Photographers). In this tour, archivists Alejandra Tafur Manrique and Martina Massullo take us behind the scenes of the archive and illuminate how it is preserved, stored, handled, and digitized for research purposes. Weaving behind glass plate negatives, soft negatives, prints on paper, and slides, we provide a general tutorial on the material supports of photography while offering a deeper appreciation of six important photographs of the Emamzadeh Yahya taken in the 1930s after its major renovation (see History of Evolution, Photo Timeline). We merely scratch the surface of the 86 photographs taken in Varamin, and we look forward to the archive’s open-access release in 2025, which is sure to have a major impact on the study of Persian art and architecture.

Figure 1. Photographic materials of the Emamzadeh Yahya on a lightsheet during our handling session. On the far left is the glass plate stereo negative. The other materials are prints on paper. Musée du Louvre, DAI, Archives Godard 1APAI/9027, 1APAI/9025, 1APAI/12368, 1APAI/9029. Photograph by Keelan Overton, June 2024.
Figure 2. Nitrate film negative on a lightsheet during our handling session. This is the stucco inscription in the southwest corner of the tomb of Emamzadeh Yahya. Just visible on the far left of the frame is a yadegari (inscription by a pilgrim) likely dated 1349/1930–31, hence providing the earliest possible date of this group of photographs. Musée du Louvre, DAI, Archives Godard 1APAI/9030. Photograph by Keelan Overton, 2024.
Figure 3. View of the Emamzadeh Zayd Abolhasan in Varamin. Print on gelatin silver bromide paper. Musée du Louvre, DAI, Archives Godard 1APAI/9028. Photograph by Keelan Overton, 2024.

Photographic materials from the Fonds Godard (Archives Godard) included in this film

Emamzadeh Yahya, Varamin

  1. View of the Emamzadeh Yahya complex from the northeast
    • Print on gelatin silver bromide paper, 5.5 x 6.2 cm, 1APAI/9027
  2. South (rear) elevation of the tomb of Emamzadeh Yahya
    • Print on gelatin silver bromide paper, 5.5 x 6.2 cm, 1APAI/9025
  3. Southwest corner of the tomb of Emamzadeh Yahya
    • Glass plate stereo negative, 6 x 13 cm, 1APAI/12368
    • Print enlargement on gelatin silver bromide paper, presumably from the right side of the above glass negative (1APAI/12368), 14.4 x 11 cm, 1APAI/9029
  4. Stucco inscription in the southwest corner of the tomb of Emamzadeh Yahya, with a yadegari (inscription by a pilgrim)
    • Nitrate film negative, 8.5 x 11.5 cm, 1APAI/9030
    • Digitized and inverted nitrate film negative, 1APAI/9030
  5. Stucco inscription in the southeast corner of the tomb of Emamzadeh Yahya
    • Nitrate film negative, 8.5 x 11.5 cm, 1APAI/9031-9032 (two)
    • Digitized and inverted nitrate film negative, 1APAI/9031-9032
  6. Northwest corner niche of the tomb of Emamzadeh Yahya
    • Nitrate film negative, 11.5 x 8.5 cm, 1APAI/9033)
    • Digitized and inverted nitrate film negative, 1APAI/9033

Other Sites in Varamin

  1. Emamzadeh Sakineh Banu
    • Print on gelatin silver bromide paper, 5.5 x 6.2 cm, 1APAI/9026
  2. Emamzadeh Zayd Abolhasan
    • Print on gelatin silver bromide paper, 8.5 x 11.7 cm, 1APAI/9028
  3. Domed qibla sanctuary (south) of the congregational mosque, with a hole in the stucco mihrab on the qibla wall
    • Print on gelatin silver bromide paper, 8.6 x 11.7 cm, 1APAI/9004
  4. Tomb tower of ʿAlaoddin
    • Print on gelatin silver bromide paper, 5.5 x 6.2 cm, 1APAI/9035

The Film

Practical resources:

  • The Godard photographic archive will be accessible on the museum’s online database Corpus in 2025

Related pages:

  • Martina Massullo’s entry on the Godards in Photographers
  • Photo Timeline of the Emamzadeh Yahya, including the six photographs discussed in this film
  • Nazanin Shahidi Marnani’s essay on the yadegari in the tomb, including the one in figure 3 above (no. 16)
  • Tour of Jane Dieulafoy’s photography album Perse 1 (1881), another important resource for the study of Varamin in Paris

Sources:

  • Overton, Keelan. “Jane Dieulafoy in Varamin: The Emamzadeh Yahya through a Nineteenth-Century Lens.” Getty Research Journal 10 (spring 2024): 57–91. [Getty]
  • Piram, Sarah. « S’approprier un modèle français en Iran ? L’architecte André Godard (1881-1965) et la conception des musées iraniens ». Les Cahiers de l’École du Louvre 11, 2017. [Open Edition Journals]
  • Tahmasbpour, Mohammad Reza, and Carmen Pérez González. “Pioneer Iranian Stereo-Photographers at the Persian Court, 1858-1905.” International Journal on Stereo & Immersive Media 2, 1 (2018): 46–65. [IJSIM]

Acknowledgments: Thank you to Alejandra Tafur Manrique and Martina Massullo for participating in this film and to the Département des Arts de l’Islam for supporting research and filming.

Alejandra Tafur Manrique Documentaliste – Fonds photographique

Martina Massullo Documentaliste – Godard Archives Project

Keelan Overton Independent scholar and Director of the exhibition

Vanessa Helou Film and Video Editor, Beirut and Paris

Citation: “Behind the Scenes of the Archive and Photograph: Fonds Godard, musée du Louvre, Paris.” Featuring Alejandra Tafur Manrique and Martina Massullo, a film by Keelan Overton. In The Emamzadeh Yahya at Varamin: An Online Exhibition of an Iranian Shrine, directed and edited by Keelan Overton, 33 Arches, 2024. Host: Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online.