Striking Photos of Bedouins by the American Colony

[raydm6]

https://www.thephotoargus.com/photos-of-bedouins-by-the-american-colony/

"At the turn of the 19th century, a group of utopian Christians moved from the United States and Sweden to Jerusalem, where they started a self-sufficient community called the American Colony. Unexpectedly, this community also ended up being highly influential as photographers in the Middle East in the early 20th century.
It might seem strange, but it’s true. From 1898 to 1946, a handful of utopian Christians took over 13,000 photos of important events, scenes, and people in the Middle East, especially around Palestine."


Historical Portraits of Bedouins

To see more photos from the American Colony Photo Department and The Matson Photo Service, view the full collection on the Library of Congress website.

 

[raydm6]

More here:
https://www.palestine-studies.org/sites/default/files/jq-articles/44_the_american_colony_2_0.pdf

 

[Guy Pinhas]

Thanks for posting this. Some great images.

https://www.thephotoargus.com/photos-of-bedouins-by-the-american-colony/

"At the turn of the 19th century, a group of utopian Christians moved from the United States and Sweden to Jerusalem, where they started a self-sufficient community called the American Colony. Unexpectedly, this community also ended up being highly influential as photographers in the Middle East in the early 20th century.
It might seem strange, but it’s true. From 1898 to 1946, a handful of utopian Christians took over 13,000 photos of important events, scenes, and people in the Middle East, especially around Palestine."


Historical Portraits of Bedouins

To see more photos from the American Colony Photo Department and The Matson Photo Service, view the full collection on the Library of Congress website.

 

[raid]

Thanks for the link. Interesting images.

 

[james.liam]

Seen these before and they were staged images to be sold in Europe and America as
“Oriental exotica”. A more interesting collection is “Jerusalem Through My Father’s Eyes”, by Kevork Kahvedjian. His father, a survivor of the Ottoman genocide of Armenians, ended up settling in Jerusalem as WWI wound down, establishing ‘Elia Photo Service’ in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City. It remains in business to this day. He was hired as an official photographer for the British Mandatory Goverment and his son published the images. Really wonderful, many true snapshots of a lost time (1924-48) and of all the constituent communities that make up the city. In addition, he collected hundreds of images by other photographers dating from the 1860’s onward.