Category Archives: Photography

A Biography of Defiance

Morocco, Photography, Poetry, Travel


Henri Matisse, The Moroccans, 1915-16,The Museum of Modern Art, New York,

A biography of defiance by Hassan El Ouazzani

It was better for the world not to have existed. It was better
for the dynasty to have kept its desire for another evening party.
It was better for the master to have been tired that night, for the earth
to have been dismal. It was better for something to have happened so that
the very semen be assassinated,
the semen whose descendant
is this one resident
in the home
of anguish.

That one
to whom the sky did offer but the robe of fire
now consuming his limbs. Continue reading A Biography of Defiance →

Leaves from an old Bible Atlas #7

Archaeology and Antiquities, Architecture, Bible and Holy Land, Israel, Palestine, Photography, Travel


Hurlbutt’s Atlas, p. 137


Hurlbutt’s Atlas, p. 133

The Christian fascination with the Holy Land as a window into interpretation of the Bible has a long and indeed fascinating history of its own. Here I continue the thread on Jesse Lyman Hurlbutt’s A Bible Atlas (New York: Rand McNally & Company, 1947, first published in 1882). As might be expected, a large part of the atlas is devoted to Jerusalem. Here are two century old pictures, one of the Dome of the Rock and the other a view of the Garden of Gethsemane looking toward an uncluttered landscape beneath the old city walls of Jerusalem.

Leaves from an old Bible Atlas #6

Bible and Holy Land, Orientalism, Palestine, Photography, Plants, Syria


Hurlbutt’s Atlas, p. 118

The Christian fascination with the Holy Land as a window into interpretation of the Bible has a long and indeed fascinating history of its own. Here I continue the thread on Jesse Lyman Hurlbutt’s A Bible Atlas (New York: Rand McNally & Company, 1947, first published in 1882). Ah, those cedars of Lebanon, hewn for Solomon’s temple but a few being left for the intrepid explorer, in this case Rev. Hurlbutt himself. Here is his sketch of that temple. Continue reading Leaves from an old Bible Atlas #6 →

Leaves from an old Bible Atlas #5

Bible and Holy Land, Orientalism, Photography, Syria


Hurlbutt’s Atlas, p. 118


Athens, Hurlbutt’s Atlas, p. 119

The Christian fascination with the Holy Land as a window into interpretation of the Bible has a long and indeed fascinating history of its own. Here I continue the thread on Jesse Lyman Hurlbutt’s A Bible Atlas (New York: Rand McNally & Company, 1947, first published in 1882). One of the interesting aspects of the accompanying illustrations is the sense that what you see in the photograph is essentially unchanged from the days of Paul’s missionary journeys. Both these images appear to have been taken before the turn of the 20th century.

To be continued …

Art Territories

Contemporary Art, Egypt, Orientalist Art, Photography, Teaching Resources

Check out this new website, initiated by Ursula Biemann and Shuruq Harb, this month: “ArtTerritories is conceived as an independent platform for artists, thinkers, researchers and curators to reflect on their art practice and engage in critical exchange on matters of art and visual culture in the Middle East and the Arab World. Dedicated to the interview format, the initiative encourages discussion of artistic process with an emphasis on discursive art and media practices, collaborative initiatives, and cultural and institutional politics. ArtTerritories aims to define, connect and expand already existing art communities in the region as well as an ever-growing invested international arts community.”


Photograph by Ahmad Hosni, from his Go Down, Moses project

The following is a sample of an interview with photographer Ahmad Hosni.

Ursula: The book is the result of intense but somewhat undirected exposure to desert experience with its chance encounters, local stories and tourist ethnographies, tinted by a literary reading of an eclectic range of writers, some of whom are discussed in the book. Continue reading Art Territories →

A Citizen of Baghdad

Iraq, Photography

One of my prize collections, inherited in part from my grandparents, is an almost complete run of National Geographic Magazine from 1907 to the present. Periodically I pull an issue off the shelf at random and browse. I recently opened up the February, 1917 issue and noticed that near the end advertising (as interesting as the articles in many cases) there were several pictures of the Middle East, but not tied to a specific article in the issue. It may be that the publisher needed to add a few pages or else these were pictures that somehow did not make it into an earlier issue. The one that struck me the most is the above portrait on p. 199. It is simply entitled “A Citizen of Baghdad” and no photographer is indicated. It looks to me like there is a scabbard in view, but the man is also holding on to something I cannot make out. I wonder if anyone has any ideas on what the man is wearing and if that is a clue as to his background.