Set against the Caucasus, at the crossroads of Russian, Ottoman, and Iranian imperial power in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Camera Caucasica shows that photographs are the product of complex networks of cultural traditions, political developments, and economic processes. The book tells the stories of Italian mountaineers, Austrian art historians, Swedish oil barons, Georgian nurses, Armenian court photographers, and Russian anthropologists—individuals who together shaped the development of photography in the Caucasus. By centering on cross-border collaboration and entanglement, Camera Caucasica presents not only the history of photography but also the history of the region itself, bringing a seemingly peripheral area into the heart of a global field of research.
Price: $109.95
Pages: 330
Publisher: Academic Studies Press
Imprint: Academic Studies Press
Series: Imperial Encounters in Russian History
Publication Date:
19 May 2026
Trim Size: 9.21 X 6.14 in
ISBN: 9798897831135
Format: Hardcover
BISACs:
History of art, Photography & photographs, Cultural studies, Sociology, Social & cultural history
Dominik Gutmeyr-Schnur is a historian of (South-)Eastern Europe at University of Graz, Austria. His research interests include modern imperial history with an emphasis on visual cultures in the Russian Empire, the entangled and global histories of (South-)Eastern Europe, and the creation and circulation of knowledge.
Note on Translations and Transliterations
Introduction
1. A Global Invention and Circulating Knowledge. The Technological Aspect of Photographic Practices
2. “Typical Natives.” The Circulation of Ethnographic-Anthropological Photography from the Caucasus
3. The State on the Stage. Visual Self-Representations of Progress and Power at World’s Fairs
4. Visions of Railway Tracks and Oil Pipelines. The Reimagination of a Region through Industrial Photography
5. Albumania at Court. Imperial Self-Representation from Cover to Cover
6. Sublime Summits and Glorious Glaciers. The Global Production and Circulation of Mountain Photography
7. The International Discovery of “National Antiquities.” Photographing Archaeological Sites in the Transimperial Caucasus
Conclusions: Caucasus Connected
Bibliography
List of Illustrations
Index