The Personal Archive to Discover the History of Qajar, Iran (original) (raw)

Focusing on some specific photographs of the ''Golestan Palace Photo Archive, Iran'', which is circulating now, both in the digital and print version, with different headings,, this visual essay will show the socio-cultural life of historical photographic archives as evidence of some untold and hidden stories of a nation and the ability of a personal archive for opening a door to travel in the historical time and space and create some specific desire to go further with this journey. Presenting two case studies, this paper will reveal the photographs as ethnographic documents considering the photographic event, time, space, and power of the photographer and the photographed subjects as the performer. The first case study will show how photographs disclose the hidden and untold truth of the presence of African slavery in Iran. Continuing with the same archive but other photographs, the second case study of this essay will discuss some aspects, how the event of the photography helped the photographer and the photographed subject to cross the taboos and opened a new way of women representation in Iran considering the Colonial and Oriental style of representations.