On Photographic Monumentalism: Nineteenth-century Representations of Architectural and Historical Sites

Abstract

Abstract This article addresses the intertwined history of photography and architectural historiography in the nineteenth century. Focusing on European photography of Egyptian antiquity and Palestine’s biblical sites, it elaborates how a commemorative form of historiography deploys photographic images of what came to be known as the “historic monument” to construct notions of patrimony, historical heritage, national identity, and imperial mission. The second part of the essay discusses photographic monumentalism in Qajar, Iran, and Ottoman Turkey as different responses to Orientalist representations of Middle Eastern architecture by Europeans.