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Last Thursday our Consul General opened the "Wiele&Klein Time Capsule" exhibition organized by
Inspire Madras. The evening was conducted by Filiep De Zutter - Resident Manager South Asia of Belgium's ??dredging group
DEME Group.
Wiele&Klein were two Madras-based photographers ? from Europe ?? and their studio was mentioned in Baedeker's 1914 travel guide on India as "The most famous late 19th and early 20th century photographic studio in the South of India".
The impressive collection by Wiele&Klein has been restaurated by the Director of Inspire Madras, V. Karthik. It is an impressive display of high quality pictures ? of a kind of nature and detail that is truly unimaginable.
There are still a lot of unknowns about these two European photographers of back then. For sure Klein had the German nationality, but Wiele's nationality has not yet been determined. Specialists claim Wiele could have been Dutch, Polish or...Belgian ?? because there can indeed be a link between "Wiele" and Flanders / Belgium.
This could be because, during the early 18th century the colonial trading company "Compagnie d'Ostende" (Ostend Company), operating from Ostend in the current ?? and headquartered in Antwerp in the current ?? also reached the Coromandel Coast near Tranquebar and Cabelon (the current Kovalam).
In fact, between 1715 and 1723, 34 ships sailed from Ostend to China, the Malabar or Coromandel Coasts, Surat, Bengal or Mocha. And in 1726 the Ostend Company received permission to build a factory and a fort in Banquibazar and Hydsiapour (Bengal).
Was Mr. Wiele then maybe Belgian ??? We don't know but we will further try to reveal his nationality. Meanwhile it is an absolute must for art lovers to visit the exhibition in Madras Square (2/520, Sandeep Salai, Neelankarai, Chennai -41)!
And soon a restobar ? under the name "Wiele&Klein" will open there as well
Excellent job by Karthik.
Thanks for your immediate response.
Regards
Brahmanyan
Bangalore.
More on his work on conservation.
CHENNAI: Photo printing machines, enlargers archival materials, camera lens, preserved glass plate negatives and restored images boxed in safe containers. These
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