Images of Industry: Representations of Work in Iranian Photography, 1873-1938

In Iran, the introduction of photography as developed in Europe rapidly led to the emergence of an independent photographic culture. Jonas Wenger uses the visual motif ‘labour’ to investigate the extent to which local photographers updated existing Orientalist stereotypes when they appropriated the technology. He also examines what rhetorical functions specific visual conventions have had for Iran’s internal discourse on internal expansionism, modernity, nationalism and independence. Over a...