Shooting with Gun and Camera:- Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Este visiting Nepal

Young man next to termite mound. Johnston & Hoffmann, 08.–26.03.1893, Terai, Nepal, Copyright Museum of Ethnology, Photo Archive, Vienna, VF 14774

An illustrated talk by Regina Höfer

This talk introduces the Nepalese and Indian collection of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Este. During his world tour in 1892/93 he visited South Asia and brought back amounts of all kinds of artefacts, ranging from miniature paintings on ivory, ethnographic clay models, weapons, botanical and zoological objects to a large collection of important historical photographs. A lot of pictures have been taken on the occasion of his visit for example by Johnston & Hoffmann or made by his own taxidermist and amateur photographer from Vienna during his hunts and encounters with Nepalese celebrities and representatives. Together with his world tour diary and other archive material, the photographs shed light on 19th century practices of commissioning, collecting and the reception of photography shifting between the poles of colonial British, monastic Austrian and princely South Asian priorities.

Regina Höfer, M.A., is an Art Historian specialized in Indian and Tibetan art and a curator. She is an associated academic at the Department of Asian and Islamic Art History, University of Bonn. Her research interests are historical Indian photography, Global Art, modern and contemporary Tibetan art, museum theory, traditions of collecting Asian art, museums in Asia and visual ethnology.

SUNDAY, 11 JANUARY 2015
5:00 – 6:30 PM
THE BAKERY CAFE, SUNDHARA