Familial Snapshots: Representing Palestine in the Work of the First Local Photographers

This essay examines the ways in which the introduction of photography as a local practice in Palestine from the late nineteenth century affected the way Palestinians saw, imagined and presented themselves in photographs. The essay narrates the history of the inception of photography as a local career in Palestine by tracing the activities of the first known local photographers. In this context, it critically questions the notions of local and non-local before examining the specific ways in which photography was employed within the larger context of Palestinian society.