Mirjam Brusius: Photography, Politics, Archival Legacies and Material Exchange: Italians in Persia, 1858

When in the mid-19th century Italian and other European travellers documented Persia's heritage with a photographic camera, many compiled albums that came to have ubiquitous aesthetic and political functions. Consequently, in the 20th century, some of the albums ended up in different discursive spaces: some can be found in state archives as diplomatic gifts compiled by the Shah, some became indispensable tools for archaeologists, others were admired by Islamic art curators in museums for their laquerwork bindings. This talk explores some of the fascinating biographies of these albums, including the impact they still have today.

Dr Mirjam Brusius (PhD History and Philosophy of Science, Univ. of Cambridge; MA Art History HU Berlin) is Research Associate at the University of Oxford and currently a Visiting Scholar at Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz. She published on early photography and on the history of of museums and archaeology in Modern Europe and the Middle East.