Linda Herzog

PhD Projekt

Ruins – Photographs – Sights
Gertrude Bell's Photographs in the Territory of Present-Day Turkey

In her practice-based dissertation project, Linda Herzog examines the photographs of the British Oriental traveler, archaeologist and diplomat, Gertrude Bell (1868–1926). In 2017, the Gertrude Bell Archive was added to the UNESCO Memory of the World Register and consists, beside other documents, of 7,000 photographs, see http://gertrudebell.ncl.ac.uk/. At the center of the research stands the question of Bell's aesthetic practice: Which representation models, stereotypes, and cultural image repertoires of the "Orient" are reflected in the aesthetics of Gertrude Bell’s archaeological photographs and travel pictures? The project critically analyses the European construction of visual knowledge of Asia Minor and the Middle East.
The starting point of this study are the 2,600 photographs taken by Bell in the territory of present-day Turkey. Methodically using comparative analysis, Bell’s pictures are compared with historical examples of European archaeological as well as Ottoman photographs, they are analyzed in descriptive reflection. To add a layer of contemporary comparison, Linda Herzog interjects into the research her own photographs which she takes in situ, and offer contemporary visual references to the present. Thus, Bell’s aesthetic practice is examined from both historical and contemporary perspectives. The purpose of this research project is the multi-dimensional analysis of Bell's photographs in the field of tension and interplays in photography, archaeology, and Orientalism.