Gezicht op ruïnes van Persepolis c. 1890 - 1895

Curator: We're looking at "Gezicht op ruïnes van Persepolis," a gelatin-silver print by Antoine Sevruguin, created sometime between 1890 and 1895. Editor: Immediately, the desaturated palette lends an air of melancholic grandeur. The scene feels like a silent testament to time and decay. Curator: Sevruguin's photography offers us a glimpse into late 19th-century Iran, a society undergoing transformation amidst Qajar rule. His work, like this image, documented landscapes, architecture, and people, shaping perceptions of Persia for a Western audience and, importantly, informing Iranian self-representation at a crucial juncture in their history. How do you feel his technical choices impact its effect? Editor: The composition directs the eye upwards, past the fragmented foreground and toward the still-standing columns, which implies resilience, yet the soft focus evokes a sense of irretrievable loss. It's as though the grandeur of Persepolis is both present and vanishing before us. Curator: Indeed, and Persepolis itself is significant, an ancient city embodying Persian imperial power, later conquered by Alexander the Great. This photograph, taken centuries later, prompts questions about the legacies of empires, about colonialism, and about how we visually memorialize the past. Who is allowed to participate in these acts of "immortalization"? Editor: Thinking of that past: Sevruguin captured form and mass here to establish that ruinous geometry of decay. The varying textures of stone rubble contrasted with the smooth columns generates visual intrigue—there is the mathematical clarity and rational forms undermined by temporal disorder, the entropic cascade frozen for an instant. Curator: By focusing on Persepolis, Sevruguin tapped into a narrative, didn't he? One that positioned Iran within a longer, often romanticized, history, but also hinting at vulnerabilities of empire. That makes one think about issues of power, about whose stories are told, and through whose lens we see them— Editor: That push and pull in the image really grabs me. Thanks for sharing these insightful layers.