Exhibition: Arab Orthodox Christians, Nationalism and the ‘Holy Land’

During the turbulence of the period after the First World War, Dutch photographer Frank Scholten (1881-1942) travelled to Palestine with the aim of producing an ‘illustrated Bible’. He arrived in Palestine in 1921 where he would stay for two years. While the bulk of his photo collection is images of Palestine, his camera lens gives us a snapshot into modernity in the Eastern Mediterranean, particularly amongst Christian communities.

The exhibition can be seen at:

• University of Groningen Library City Centre
• 4th floor & ground floor
• until 31 May 2023

Scholten’s documentary approach to photography gives us scenes of an everyday modernity in Palestine with a particular attention to religion and ethnography. His lens shows us the complicated mosaic of communities in the Eastern Mediterranean at the moment when the impacts of the war cemented the competing nationalisms still current today. The Scholten collection shows the connections between Arab Orthodox communities, Greeks living in Palestine at the time and brief glimpse of Greece before the notorious population exchanges, and beyond with various Jewish communities and the Muslim population. We get a sense of the lost interconnectedness of communities across the Eastern Mediterranean before the disruptions that modern nationalism forged.

The Frank Scholten Collection (NINO) is held at the Special Collections Department of Leiden University and was researched by the NWO VIDI project team 'CrossRoads. A connected history of European Cultural diplomacy and Arab Christians in Palestine (1918-1948)' (PI Karène Sanchez Summerer, University of Groningen, Faculty of Arts, Middle Eastern Studies).