Salome Erni
Keywords: Palestine, Archive, Iconization
Interesting Things is the title of 59 photographic negatives;
photographs that were made in Palestine in the 1920s by Dutch photographer Frank Scholten;
photographs that are now housed at Leiden University Libraries;
photographs that reflect colonial views and appropriating gazes on the “Holy Land”;
photographs that captured Palestinian life before the Nakba.
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How to look at photographs while witnessing a genocide? The work Interesting Things is to be understood as an insight into ongoing conversations that deal with images from Palestine (1921-2923) which were labelled as "des choses intéressantes" – Interesting Things – by the photographer.
I am, too, related to these images that exist as matter, as photographs in exile, so close by. In the video essay, I therefore decided to be present in front of the camera myself, handling the negatives and reciting the voice-over. By inverting the video footage – and thereby turning the negatives into positives – the essay deals with the political act of looking. Who gazes at whom, and what power dynamics are at play?
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Narratives are not inherent to photographs, but constantly in flux. This is especially apparent in the liminal space between photographs and annotations. What to retrieve, which meanings to infuse, what to add? The publication Interesting Things juxtaposes Frank Scholten’s photographs with words. It appropriates how Frank Scholten captioned his images to create a biblical taxonomy of people and places, and it questions how later archivists and researchers assigned keywords and titles. By inviting collaborators to contribute their words, the publication deconstructs notions of knowledge and narrations of Euro-Christian hegemony. The book is an attempt to deal collectively with images that are ambiguous, political, historical and urgent at the same time.
When thinking of Palestine as a land under colonial-imperial rule, there is a line to be drawn from Orientalism‘s patronizing depictions of an “empty land“ to the current genocide, to the organised destruction of a people. There is a line to be drawn from Zionism’s urge to erase Palestinian lives from the archives to the scattered photographic heritage today. There is a line to be drawn from Palestine under British Mandate to the current oppression. There is a line to be drawn from Frank Scholten’s images to today’s gazes.
By looking at Frank Scholten’s photographs, there are many “others” to encounter, and the installation “Interesting Things” gives space to explore these relations and to position oneself in them. We not only watch: Everyone is related to imperialist projects that intersected and still intersect in Palestine.
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