Gezicht op de ruïnes van stad Samaria of Sebaste in Israël Possibly 1862 - 1864

Francis Bedford captured this image of the ruins of Samaria or Sebaste in Israel with photography, a medium then still in its relative infancy, during the mid-19th century. Bedford, as a British artist, would have likely approached this scene through a colonial lens, framing the ruins as evidence of a lost civilization, ripe for Western interpretation and perhaps, control. The subdued tones and careful composition evoke a sense of melancholy and historical distance. We might wonder, though, about the narratives that are not immediately visible. What did this place mean to the people who lived there at the time? How does the act of photographing it, of turning it into an object of study and art, affect its story? The emotional resonance here lies in the tension between the aesthetic beauty of the scene and the weight of its history.