Nineteenth-century Photography


Book Description




Photographing Jerusalem


Book Description

This text explores the different ways in which Jews, Christians and Muslims have imagined Jerusalem in the past and considers the meanings of 19th-century photographic representations of the city. It illustrates the way in which the city looked through the lens of a camera in the 1800s and investigates the uses of photographic representation while taking a tour of 19th-century Jerusalem sites in more than 100 photographs.




The Arab Imago


Book Description

The birth of photography coincided with the expansion of European imperialism in the Middle East, and some of the medium's earliest images are Orientalist pictures taken by Europeans in such places as Cairo and Jerusalem—photographs that have long shaped and distorted the Western visual imagination of the region. But the Middle East had many of its own photographers, collectors, and patrons. In this book, Stephen Sheehi presents a groundbreaking new account of early photography in the Arab world. The Arab Imago concentrates primarily on studio portraits by Arab and Armenian photographers in the late Ottoman Empire. Examining previously known studios such as Abdullah Frères, Pascal Sébah, Garabed Krikorian, and Khalil Raad, the book also provides the first account of other pioneers such as Georges and Louis Saboungi, the Kova Brothers, Muhammad Sadiq Bey, and Ibrahim Rif'at Pasha—as well as the first detailed look at early photographs of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. In addition, the book explores indigenous photography manuals and albums, newspapers, scientific journals, and fiction. Featuring extensive previously unpublished images, The Arab Imago shows how native photography played an essential role in the creation of modern Arab societies in Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon before the First World War. At the same time, the book overturns Eurocentric and Orientalist understandings of indigenous photography and challenges previous histories of the medium.




City of Collision


Book Description

War has entered the cities. Since September 11, 2001 at the latest, it has become apparent that this is the case not only in Jerusalem and the Middle East, but also in Western metropolises. This book presents a thorough investigation of the current situation in Jerusalem from a trilateral perspective: Israeli, Palestinian, and international experts air their views. The discussion centers on the production and use of urban space under the conditions created by the conflict, including, for example, the so-called security fence, urban enclaves, exclaves, the approach to monuments and no-man’s-land, and the instrumentalization of infrastructures, which leads to the crass juxtaposition of highly developed and impoverished urban spaces. The conflict, however, does not bring with it destruction and violence alone, but also exhibits ambivalent effects and, along with them, new cultural and urban realities. Jerusalem has become a prototype in the age of new urban violence. Der Krieg hat Einzug in die Städte gehalten. Spätestens seit dem 11. September 2001 ist deutlich geworden, dass nicht mehr nur Jerusalem und der Nahen Osten betroffen sind, sondern auch westliche Metropolen. Das Buch stellt eine umfassende urbanistische Untersuchung der aktuellen Situation in Jerusalem aus trilateraler Perspektive vor: israelische, palästinensische und internationale Fachleute kommen zu Wort. Diskutiert werden Produktion und Nutzung von städtischem Raum unter den Bedingungen des Konflikts, wie z.B. der sog. Sicherheitszaun, urbane Enklaven, Exklaven, der Umgang mit Monumenten und Niemandsland oder die Instrumentalisierung von Infrastrukturen, die zu einem krassen Nebeneinander von hoch entwickelten oder verarmten städtischen Räumen führen. Der Konflikt bringt jedoch nicht nur Destruktion und Gewalt mit sich, sondern zeigt vielmehr auch ambivalente Wirkungen und mit ihnen neue kulturelle und urbane Realitäten. Jerusalem ist zu einem Prototyp im Zeitalter neuer städtischer Gewalt geworden.




Egypt and the Holy Land in Historic Photographs


Book Description

Priceless views of Egyptian and biblical antiquities as they looked in the mid-19th century, before war, neglect, and exploitation took their toll. 77 spectacular photographs of the Pyramids, Sphinx, Karnak, Luxor, Thebes, Mt. Horeb, Old Jerusalem, the Dead Sea, Damascus, and more. Introduction. Captions.




Pre-State Photographic Archives and the Zionist Movement


Book Description

By entering and critically re-activating the Zionist photographic archive established by the Division of Journalism and Propaganda of the Jewish National Fund, this research examines its rippling impact on civil landscapes prior to 1948 in Palestine, and its lasting impact on the region to date. This study argues that the Zionist movement makes particular use of the machinery of the photographic archive, aiming to constitute the boundaries of Palestine as a Jewish state, claiming ownership over the land and announcing internationally the success of its enterprise, thus substantiating the image it sought to embed as the “reality” of the land. This archive was not stand-alone, as it was functioning in relation to a vast, complicated network of organizational systems and technologies, in the Middle East and across the world. Crucially, this system functioned as a national archive in future tense, for a nation-state that was not yet in existence, seeking to substantiate its regional authority and shape its cultural repository, outlining parameters for inclusion and exclusion from its civic space. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, photography history, visual culture, Jewish studies, Israel studies and Middle East studies.




An Early Album of the World


Book Description

Featuring a broad selection of photographs from Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac and other French partner museums, the exhibition catalogue explores the circumstances in which photography was introduced in Europe since 1839 and then practiced around the world, including the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas by leading photographers like Jacques-Philippe Potteau, Isidore van Kinsbergen, Auguste Bartholdi, Désiré Charnay, Muhammad Sadiq Bey, Lala Deen Dayal, Abdullah Brothers and Timothy O’Sullivan. It also features a selection of historical texts on photography by prominent theologian and philosopher, the Emir Abd el-Kader.




The Bible and the Image


Book Description

This book is a volume in the Penn Press Anniversary Collection. To mark its 125th anniversary in 2015, the University of Pennsylvania Press rereleased more than 1,100 titles from Penn Press's distinguished backlist from 1899-1999 that had fallen out of print. Spanning an entire century, the Anniversary Collection offers peer-reviewed scholarship in a wide range of subject areas.




The Israel/Palestine Question


Book Description

An explicitly revisionist collection that takes the ground away from pro-Israeli historians and suggests a far more nuanced view of the issue,The Israel/Palestine Questionassimilates diverse interpretations of the origins of the Middle East conflict with emphasis on the fight for Palestine and its religious and political roots. Drawing largely on scholarly debates in Israel during the last two decades, which have become known as 'historical revisionism,' the collection presents the most recent developments in the historiography of the Arab-Israeli conflict and a critical reassessment of Israel's past. The volume commences with an overview of Palestinian history and the origins of modern Palestine, and includes essays on the early Zionist movement, the 1948 war, international influences on the conflict and the Intifada.