For the audience at the ongoing mega Photography Festival, Xposure 2019, being held in Sharjah, the Saturday evening presented a rare opportunity to time travel into the early days of photography.

In a fascinating session titled ‘Looking vs Seeing, How Photography Altered Perception,’ conducted by Prof J Tomas Lopez, Professor and Chair, Department of Arts and Art History, University of Miami, the visitors watched spellbound as one after another picture was displayed on the screen – charting the path that photography has taken since its inception to becoming an important part of our lives today.

Bringing to life historic moments from the early years of photography, the session talked about how the art of photography has changed the way people have looked at the world.

During the session, Prof Lopez shared images from as early as 1826, pictures of the first photographic book by Anna Atkins, along with other iconic pictures like Neil Armstrong photographed on the moon in 1969 and a picture of Victor Hugo by Nadar, taken in 1885.

Addressing the audience, Prof Lopez said, “Photography when it came into being, it was for the first time that you could hold in your hands that would prove something that happened back in time. Before (photography) that you had to imagine it. It was the first time we had an objective way to record information.”

“There were some photographs which didn’t just represent people but represented generations on the whole, at times,” he added.

He also talked about the impact of photography during wars across the world. With examples like the iconic Valley of Shadow of Death (1885), Prof Lopez kept the audience glued to their seats all through the talk. One of the most interesting photographs shared by the speaker was ‘Home of a rebel sharpshooter’ taken in 1863, which he said was the ‘first photograph of the world that lied’ but captured the true reality of war’.

Xposure 2019, being held at Expo Centre Sharjah until 22nd September, brings together top photographers and experts in the field from across the world. The event is exhibiting 1,112 works by 357 photographers across 38 solo exhibitions, along with 46 indoor and 5 outdoor exhibitions across Sharjah and Dubai.