The Beginning of Photography in Iran (Critical Introduction on Iran Photohistory in Naseri Period)

In 1842, three years after its announcement in Paris, photography, as a gift, was brought to Mohammad Shah Qajar’s palace by both England’s and Russia’s legations. It was later put into the hands of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar (r. 1848-96) and his courtiers as an object for entertainment and was used vastly. In Iran, we could regard photography as a tool, which was brought to the court unintentionally and without any previous inquiry from the king or royal family, although there could be the ideological and colonial goals for introducing the camera to Iran’s court by European states intentionally. The camera stayed for years in the palace and in the shah’s hands, the courtiers’, and other Qajar nobles’ and consequently too many photographs were taken and archived.  The photos` archive of the Qajar period is undoubtedly one of the largest visual treasures and an important part of Iranian history. If we consider this archive as a visual atmosphere, then it is possible to discuss ontological issues regarding it or analyze the essence and circumstance of this visual atmosphere from a critical point of view. If this visual atmosphere is named Visuality then we can ask what kind of visuality, why and how it was formed during the Naseri period, what functions could this visuality have had in the past, or even in future? We can regard visuality as a visual synonym for discourse. Foucault considers discourse as violence or a violent procedure that we frame phenomena (e.g., history) to study them. This procedure or method is the only way to legitimize historical events and to interrogate history. Such a position in relation to the history of photography in Iran can be considered as a fundamental study in this field; something that has been neglected almost in scholarly work on Iran’s history of photography. Genealogy as a historical methodology can make a suitable framework for this paper. The author justifies a possibility that the visuality of photography in the Naseri period is politically formed and articulated, albeit in the context of the traditional concept of politics. There were some reasons, such as the camera in the hands of the most important person in a country; taking the first photographs there; the establishment of the first house of photography in the palace for fixing the photography on a structure called government and palace; being formed in politics; and connecting with power relations. Yet we should consider politics and government based on their traditional concepts, and that is why the author can talk about the formation of political visuality in this period. Of course, one should not miss the political-orientalist view that can maintain its political, social and cultural functions even till now. Indeed the foreign photographers have paid more attention to the social subjects and generally the eastern-Iranian man; in other words, the view of orientalist is completely obvious in the documentary social photos taken by them for rulers, curators and later for those scholars whose job was to study about Iran.