Mini-Symposium Showcases Frank Scholten's Palestinian History Photographs

In the course of the afternoon, experts from various disciplines will deliver short lectures on the importance of Scholten's work on the basis of a single photo chosen by them. In addition, plans for forthcoming work on the improvement of digital access to the collection will be presented. This next step in the cataloguing process will start in April 2023. Participants are cordially invited to work with original vintage photos from the collection in the upcoming series of metadata workshops. At the end of the afternoon, participants can get acquainted with original material from the Scholten collection in a pop-up exhibition.

Frank Scholten

From 1921-1923, artist Frank Scholten photographed an area of the Holy Land that was then part of Palestine in an almost encyclopaedic manner. From systematic documentation to portraits, from Biblical landscapes to a loose form of street photography: Scholten captured it in more than 20,000 photos. His photo collection is now regarded as one of the most important visual resources in Palestine. Not in the least because of the LGBTQ+ perspective, which is unique for the early twentieth century, and which can be seen in the photography of Scholten, who was himself a homosexual.