The photos are more than 150 years old and taken from all over the world including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, India, the Philippines and more… 

There’s a new photography exhibition on at Louvre Abu Dhabi – and it’s unlike any other photography exhibition you’ve probably been to before.

Now on display at the Saadiyat Island museum is a rare display of some of the earliest photographs in the world.

A World of Exchanges, Photographs 1842 – 1896: An Early Album of the World will be the museum’s fourth international exhibition of the season, but also the first ever exhibit that focuses solely on photographs. Amazingly, the exhibition will feature more than 250 historic photographs that have been taken between 1842 and 1896.

The photos have been taken by travellers and sailors across the world, from the Middle East, Africa, Asia, India and the Americas.

HE Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of the Department of Culture and Tourism, Abu Dhabi, described the exhibit as a ‘testament to how Louvre Abu Dhabi brings the world to our city’ and that visitors will be given ‘the opportunity to travel to new places and explore different regions of the world through the eyes of 19th-century travellers.’

Here a glimpse of what to expect:

View of the Holy Shrine and the City of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, 1881. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris


The Maharani of Nepal and her Ladies in Waiting. musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac

Portrait of a couple. Lima. 1852 – 1856. musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac

ALSO READ: You can now go kayaking at the Louvre Abu Dhabi

There is a multimedia guide that is available in Arabic, English, and French and a catalogue available that highlights key historical moments illustrating the circumstances in which photography was introduced and practiced around the world.

Alongside the exhibition, Louvre Abu Dhabi is also hosting photography workshops, screening films and holding a cine-concert entitled In the Land of the Head Hunters, where French musician Rodolphe Burger will perform a musical interpretation of one of the most beautiful silent-movies ever made.

You can purchase your tickets here with entrance to the exhibition free with the museum’s admission ticket. Children under the age of 13 enter free.

The works on display are loans so you have until July 13, 2019, to check it out.

Louvre Abu Dhabi, Saadiyat Island, exhibit runs until July 13, 10am to 8pm Sat to Wed, 10am to 10pm Thur and Fri, Tel: (600) 565 566, louvreabudhabi.ae

– For more about Abu Dhabi straight to your newsfeed, follow us on Facebook. 

Images: Department of Culture and Tourism, Abu Dhabi