Israeli and Palestinian Postcards: Presentations of National Self

Five: The Orientalized Area Self

chapter five The Orientalized Area Self M ardo Nalbandian has been photographing Israel and the PalestinianTerritories since 1952. His well-known photography shop, GARO Photo Studios, is located on Ṣalāḥ al-dīn Street in East Jerusalem. Nalbandian’s photographic work is easy to find throughout the Israeli and Palestinian areas because it has often been sold to Palphot. Palphot, in turn, reproduces Nalbandian’s photographs for picture postcards, posters, and calendars, and distributes them en masse for sale. Nowadays, Nalbandian makes his own postcards. Using his own photographs , or the photographs of his photographer brother Dikran, Nalbandian produces postcards under the name ‘‘GARO Photo’’ and displays them for sale in his GARO Photo Studios. By making his own postcards, Nalbandian ensures that he keeps control over the photographs’ copyrights, as well as the potential revenues that result from their use. According to Nalbandian, 135 Tseng 2003.12.9 08:24 6951 Semmerling / ISRAELI AND PALESTINIAN POSTCARDS / sheet 157 of 255 when he sells photographs to Palphot, Palphot can reproduce these photographs as much as it wants and in any manner it desires. In turn, he only gets his initial sale price of the photographs and credit for his authorship in the captions. This chapter focuses only on the GARO Photo postcards, often referred to as ‘‘Nalbandian’s photography’’ or ‘‘work,’’ since Nalbandian has more personal control over their production. Nalbandian’s work is significant for this discussion of the presentation of national self. The importance of his postcards resides in the fact that the conceptual construct of national self is not his intention. Indeed, Nalbandian identifies Jerusalem as his place of birth, and he claims his ArmenianChristian origins. However, he claims to eschew the politics of national identity, thereby avoiding political allegiance and controversy in the IsraeliPalestinian conflict. While his work may not reflect a national self of the type discussed in the previous chapters, it does reflect, and thus presents, an area self. In other words, he creates images of how he would like his home area, or region, to be viewed by the rest of the world. His area self is presented with images based upon the theme of the Holy Land. Take, for example, his co-authored souvenir picture book Our Visit to the Holy Land, which is filled with information about Nalbandian’s concept of his area self. The entire picture book is an album of Nalbandian’s photographic work, much of it the same as the images on the postcards, to be analyzed below, that he sells at GARO Photo Studios. An avoidance of politics is evident from the fact that his photographs in the book are not marked as being of Israel or Palestine. Furthermore, the book’s narrative is written intentionally to avoid naming either of them. The book refers to the area as ‘‘the Holy Land.’’ This is peculiar because it is very specific in marking off the area and in mentioning political boundaries of other modern nations. ‘‘The Holy Land,’’ it states, is a region situated in the Middle East on the southeast shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It is bounded on the north by Lebanon and Syria, on the east by Jordan and the Jordan River, on the south by Egypt and on the west by the Mediterranean Sea.1 Nalbandian sees his photography as a business venture and a way to produce income, as opposed to making a political statement. In an attempt to gener136 : : Israeli and Palestinian Postcards Tseng 2003.12.9 08:24 6951 Semmerling / ISRAELI AND PALESTINIAN POSTCARDS / sheet 158 of 255 ate profit, Nalbandian caters to the religious, historical, and aesthetic tastes and fantasies of foreign, mainly Western, Holy Land tourists. Yet, in spite of his claimed political objectivity, Nalbandian’s work is politically consequential to Israelis and Palestinians. He overlooks the consequences of the Orientalism inherent in his presentation of the Holy Land area self. ‘‘Orientalism,’’ according to Edward Said, is the Western-constructed knowledge of the Other, or the non-Occidental. Said describes Orientalism as a way of disciplining, classifying, and ordering non-Occidental geography , inhabitants, traditions, and cultures into Occidentally understandable, describable, objectifiable, and controllable Otherness. With Orientalism, the Occident restructures the Orient and is thereby able to wield its authority, power, superiority, and domination over the Oriental Other. Orientalism, as depicted by Said, actually turns against Occidental minds. It leads...