Born in France on March 3rd, 1860, Albert Khan (Born Abraham Kahn) grew up to be a banker and a well-known philanthropist through his “Archives of the Planet” Photography project.
On June 16th, as a class, we went to the Albert-Kahn Museum and garden. The first thing I noticed was the large-scale and modern architecture of the museum itself. The entrance to the museum was under a cool extension of the building. As we walked into the exhibit, I noticed that it was not that big, that all the information was all right here in this one room. Learning about Albert Kahn and his “archives of the planet” project was very immersive. Thousands of photos are placed across the walls of the room, placing the scale of the project right in front of you. It makes you realize how much work was put into it. What I enjoyed about the museum was how they used technology to make the museum experience more enjoyable and immersive. They used screens in the center of the room that would respond to this interactive table that let you decide what to watch, and a table with like 30 semi-transparent photos of people he took photos of with a wire that you could plug in and out of different ports that let you know their occupation. Things like this are what catch my attention. I see why they made the museum this way. Because there is just so much to know about Albert Kahn but wall text and videos are just not enough to catch people’s attention these days. The museum provided ample information on Albert Kahn and its presentation was just as impressive.
In 1895, Albert bough
t a mansion that he had been renting out since 1892. He quickly began developing a large garden. The garden felt like a mix of a Japanese zen garden and a traditional European garden. These two styles blended very well and I never really noticed a certain point where the styles changed. The Garden had nice long pathways to smaller one-room buildings that held more archives and information about Kahn, his project, and the garden. This added a feeling that you were still in the museum and kept the flow of information pretty steady. It’s a good way in reminding the visitor that the garden is also a part of Kahn’s work. The Albert Kahn museum had plenty to offer and even though I was feeling a bit ill due to allergies, I definitely appreciated every moment.