Frank Scholten Photographing Palestine: Selected Images of Homosocial Spaces

In 1920 Dutchman, homosexual and amateur photographer Frank Scholten left the Netherlands on a pilgrimage to Palestine. He arrived in 1921 leaving at the end of 1923, witnessing the establishment of the British Mandate after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Armed with a camera and library of 6,000 books, he planned to produce a definitive illustrated bible totalling twelve-volumes. Two volumes were published during his life, and synthesised Christian, Muslim and Jewish holy texts alongside secular histories. Approximately 25,000 photographs [mostly of Palestine] and copious working notes referencing texts against images are now held in the Nederlands Institut voor het Nabije Oosten [NINO]. This selection of photographs and clippings focuses on the homosocial spaces that Scholten documented in Palestine, as well as some of the more ‘queer’ classical works that influenced his photographic practice. This exhibition is complemented by a paper presentation.