Photography happens in Tunisia

It is November 29, 1879 at Charly-sur-Marne (Aisne), was born Ernest Gustave Gobert.
In 1906, he obtained a PhD in Medicine and off for Tunisia. He exercises first in the south of Tunisia before being appointed in 1920, the director of hygiene and public health in Tunisia. Meanwhile, he developed a passion for prehistory and ethnography that give rise to many publications, books and scientific articles and literary works.

Back in France in 1958, he moved to Aix-en-Provence and bequeaths to the Natural History Museum of Aix-en-Provence a collection of artifacts from prehistoric times and a large collection of photography.

In the last two centuries, Tunisian visual archives were done by french and some Germans, at that time when Tunisia was under the French occupation, photography was about showing how France was doing good in a disordered country.

All the photos in [Photos-tunisie-gobert]

The first time I visited Tunisia was in the 1960s not long after the country had gained its independence from France and President Bourguiba was in power. The country was just beginning to dip its toe into the rapidly expanding river of tourism.

...Close by is the real Tunisia, the medina at Sousse, the troglodyte dwellings at Matmata, the desert market at Douz, the Chott and the mountain oases. The photography is exciting and challenging and for a Muslim country--the least restricted that I have experienced.

Sousse, Tunisia's third largest city, is an unusual combination of beach resort, industrial port and Islamic city. Each part of the city is separate, so you pass from one world to another quickly and totally. The old medina is a maze of winding streets and endless photographic opportunities--the ideal place to start your journey and become acclimated to the country.

This was a fascinating journey with plenty of photographic opportunities, so I was very happy to retrace my steps in February 2003 leading a group of 15 photographers from the Northern Region of the Royal Photographic Society.

This is an other testimonial how pretty the photography is in Tunisia through decades, people like Jane H. Black were coming and going enjoying every little stuff around, Tunisia is the land of the picturesque a motion worth take shots and getting back happy with a little smell of history in a photo.

Read the Full article by [Jane H. Black]

Copyright created and registered in England, is secured ipso facto in the other countries subscribing to Berne convention of International Copyright. These countries are as follow: Algiers, Belgium, Denmark and the Faeroe Islands, France and its colonies, Hayti,Italy,Japan,Liberia, Luxembourg, Monaco, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, Tunis, under this convention the photographer must comply with the formalities of his country (The country of origin), and he obtains in the other countries the degree protection of production which granted to natives in these countries. The degree of protection varies ...

From [Cassell's Cyclopedia of Photography By Bernard Edward Jones]

Thus as you can see the first threads about Photography copyright came from UK and so did the other Europe country, while in Tunisia, we would certainly do the same as France under the protectorate system. I'm sure that at the time the stock photos was a prominent business all over Europe(Perhaps not yet in USA)they did always tried to protect it from copy and theft as ma matter of assets more than a matter of art.

Till those days, the Tunisian legislation classifies Photography with other copyrighted paper stuff as books, there is no straight law showing the specific nature of the photo itself. I don't know even if we are still in the Bern convention, hope so.

The recent war between France and Tunis which upset government of the latter and made the Tunisian a sort of department of France has not benefited M. Chazal for he was an intimate acquaintance of the Bey fifteen months indeed M. Chazal was an inmate of the at Tunis for the Bey's brother is an accomplished thanks to our host tuition Very soon the came to appreciate the value of photography and like wise man he cast about for a thorough master who could the art root and branch His brother however the more apt pupil although the Bey himself was imbued with the importance of photography that he upon establishing a private studio for himself C. Chazal was sent for and given carte blanche both in respect construction and expenditure and the consequence was in a few months the Bey's palace at Tunis boasted one the most complete photographic establishments The of glorious old Carthage or rather what is left of are very close to Tunis as every student of the knows full well and this spot afforded plenty of scope to the Royal photographs.

From The Photographic News edited by Sir William Crookes, G Wharton Simpson

It's a very strange text of memory, M. Chazal (Who seems to be British) seems to be a pioneer photographer in North Africa, as he have been in Algeria, the contact with the royal family have established deep photography tradition inside the palace of the Bey thus making the epidemic of the photo such a Royal affair.

I don't remember seeing any photos labeled by the name of a Bey, I wonder where did the works of his majesty gone, such photography should be one of the first art works ever in Tunisia, we know few things about the monarchy and we know fewer things about the Photos at that times.

Prisoner-of-war compound in Tunisia where more than a quarter million German and Italian soldiers were held following the Allied victory in North Africa. Many of these prisoners were sent to the United States. (Courtesy U.S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle Barracks, Pa.)