Title: Documenting the Social: Frank Scholten Taxonomising Identity in British Mandate Palestine
Abstract:in 1921, staying a little over two years.The wealth of photographs he produced provides us with a particular insight into the vast changes the country was experiencing in the aftermath of World War I ...in 1921, staying a little over two years.The wealth of photographs he produced provides us with a particular insight into the vast changes the country was experiencing in the aftermath of World War I and the fall of the Ottoman Empire.His documentary style of photography, and his project to produce an illustrated Bible, demonstrates a complicated confluence of religious narrative and modern scientific methodologies, as well as post-Ottoman and European approaches to social organisation.Both the Scholten Collection1 and the man himself are significantly understudied.In attempting to understand Scholten's unique approach to photography, attention must be paid to his background as well as the social and political context of early British Mandate Palestine to fully grasp the taxonomies he employed.Scholten, much like the complicated body of photographs he left behind, defies typical categorisations given the ways he approached the imaging of Palestine.Scholten's lens gives us a rare insight into Palestine society from elites to villagers.He captures ethno-confessional diversity as well as the significant shifts taking place in the early 1920s.The many contradictions that he and his work embody, makes for a very particular lens through which to view the social histories of the establishment of the British Mandate in Palestine, showing a collision of more typical readings dealing with the Biblical past against the modern life which such imaging typically effaces.In attempting to map Scholten's photographic outputs and methodology, we need to take into account the complexity of the milieu with which he was associated in Europe, the cultural contexts into which he was born and livedRead More