Born in Alsace, France in 1860, Albert Kahn grew up on the border of France, Germany, and Switzerland. At only ten years old, Kahn was just a child when the Franco-Prussian war broke out, which deeply affected him. Growing up with war constantly around him, Kahn understood the struggles and misfortunes of life. Instead of letting this pain demotivate him or shatter his hope for the world, he was led down a different path. He took this knowledge of the world and used it to connect others through passion and understanding.
While walking through the Albert Kahn museum and learning of Kahn’s life, I couldn’t help but think about all the people I know in my life and how there are so many other people in this world that I may never meet. I was reminded of a theory of the world that my grandma used to tell me about. She was convinced that everyone on Earth is tied to an invisible string. This string pulls you to where you need to be in life and leads you to all the people you are destined to meet. This theory of life explains the different ways of connection and relationships that humans have with each other.
I think Albert Kahn perfectly demonstrated this theory with his work. Through his photography, he not only captured the good and celebratory parts of life, but also the parts that some may want to forget. He purposefully created images of people struggling, of people in states of distress. Just like how our invisible string connects us to each other, Albert Kahn’s photos bring people together. They show what it means to be human.
I had the chance to talk to a couple who were sitting in the gardens of the museum. I did not talk to them for very long, but their story really stuck with me. While I didn’t catch their names, they seemed to have lived such interesting lives. The woman was from Paris and on a date with an Italian man. Despite their different home countries, they somehow found a way to meet each other. Perhaps it was their invisible string that pulled them together; something that sparked a desire in each of them that led to them falling in love. Perhaps it was my invisible string that pulled me to them; to spark up a short, but meaningful conversation that changed the trajectory of my day. Perhaps it was our invisible strings pulling us to each other, as we were both at the same museum, on the same day, looking the beautiful gardens and learning about the incredibly inspiring things that Albert Kahn did to help connect others.
https://museemagazine.com/features/2019/10/22/feature-albert-kahns-archives-of-the-planet
