Photography's Orientalism

New Essays on Colonial Representation

Behdad Ali, Gartian Luke

This book explores the interplay between 19th-century photography and Europe's vision of the Middle East. The Middle East played a critical role in the development of photography as a new technology and an art form. Likewise, photography was instrumental in cultivating and maintaining Europe's distinctively Orientalist vision of the Middle East. As new advances enhanced the versatility of the medium, 19th-century photographers were able to mass-produce images to incite and satisfy the demands of a burgeoning tourist industry and the appetites of armchair travellers in Europe. In this way, the evolution of modern photography fuelled an interest in visual contact with the rest of the world. "Photography's Orientalism" offers the first in-depth cultural study of the works of European and non-European photographers active in the Middle East, focusing on the relationship between photographic, literary, and historical representations of this region and beyond.

About the Author

Ali Behdad is John Charles Hill Professor of Literature and chair of the English Department at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Luke Gartlan is a lecturer in the School of Art History at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland.

Reviews

"Nineteenth-century Indian photographers made portraits that borrow heavily from the conventions of Mughal miniatures. Early 20th-century Indian photographers did not wince from shooting graphic images of pro-independence protestors shot down by British Army rifles in demonstrations. And most interesting of all, this book is full of wonderful Ottoman photos – portraits, journalism, and magnificent panoramic landscapes that are essentially documents of empire, attesting to the depth, breadth and ethnic variety of the Sultan's domains" – Art & Antiques

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