Technologies of the image

David J. Roxburgh, Mary McWilliams, Farshid Emami, Mira Xenia Schwerda

With a few notable exceptions, scholars have historically understudied and often underappreciated the art of Iran in the Qajar era (1779-1925). This catalogue presents a fresh take on the art of the period, setting aside the value judgments that shaped early responses to instead examine the effects and results of new technologies of representation across a variety of mediums. The book foregrounds the inherent relationship and movement among mediums and images, both traditional and new, while deflecting primary attention from royal patronage to more public and widely accessible forms of image-making. In bringing together four principal art forms--lacquer, painting and drawing on paper, lithography, and photography--the authors explore the separate and intertwined histories of these mediums, their contexts of production, and their means of dissemination across sectors of society ranging...