Podcast Summary

Overview

Episode:
Sary Zananiri, "Photographing Biblical Modernity: Frank Scholten in British Mandate Palestine" (I.B. Tauris, 2026)
Host: Roberto Matza
Guest: Sari Zananiri
Date: February 12, 2026
Podcast: New Books Network

Theme:
This episode features a conversation with Sary Zananiri about their book analyzing the photographic archive of Frank Scholten, an enigmatic queer Dutch Catholic photographer who documented Palestine during the transformative years of British Mandate rule (1921–1923). Zananiri’s interdisciplinary study situates Scholten’s 26,000+ photographs within wider contexts of modernity, colonialism, religious networks, gender politics, and visual culture, challenging prevailing narratives about biblical Palestine and revealing the complexity and dynamism of local society during this pivotal historical moment.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Sary Zananiri’s Background and the Origins of the Book

• Personal & Academic Context
  • Zananiri’s interest began during postdoctoral research at Leiden University after being introduced to Scholten’s almost-unknown photographic collection.
  • The initial intrigue was fueled by Scholten’s obscurity and the sheer scale of his undocumented archive: “There was very, very little information about him as a photographer or his time in Palestine or anything biographical. Just a handful of 20 or 30 odd images that had been digitized from what turned out to be an enormous collection of 26,000 items...” (04:38)
  • Zananiri’s prior work in fine arts and interest in Western portrayals of Palestine informed their deep dive into transnational dynamics, cultural encounters, and the shifting politics embedded within the photographs.

Frank Scholten: An Extraordinary Figure

• Complex Identity
  • Scholten was a queer Dutch man from an aristocratic Protestant background, who converted to Catholicism after WWI and fled the Netherlands following legal troubles relating to homosexuality laws (see detailed context at 07:27–15:33).
  • Scholten inhabited intersecting worlds: from the elite circles of Dutch society, through queer circles in Berlin (including Magnus Hirschfeld’s sphere), to elite Catholic networks (meeting Cardinal van Rossum and the Pope).
• Visual Documentation & Legal Troubles
  • His legal background and eventual Catholic conversion colored his way of seeing and documenting Palestine: “Once he got to Palestine, he was documenting in a very short two and a half year period from 1921–23, a huge amount of...almost everything. ... There is a sort of a relative naturalism about the photographs, which is quite unusual for a Western photographer...” (15:15)

The Photographic Collection and Scholten’s Motives

• Ambitious Vision
  • Scholten aimed to create a vast, 16-volume illustrated Bible using his photographs, but only two volumes were published. His aim blended religious, scientific, and aesthetic impulses, and was infused with his personal identities.
  • There’s a clear interplay between his newfound Catholicism and queer identity, as he sought to render both modernity and religious resonance in everyday life: “Somebody like Scholten is...an example of visual anthropology before visual anthropology is a field. ... There’s this sort of attempt at developing academic methodology for understanding the world.” (18:04–19:08)
• Resistance to Commercial Stereotypes
  • Scholten’s approach defied Orientalist cliches, mixing images of both tradition and modernity, rural and urban life, and highlighting the rapidly changing society.

Concepts of Biblical Mirroring and Agency

• Beyond Passive Subjects
  • Zananiri argues for Palestinian agency in the creation of biblical imagery, coining “biblical mirroring”: “Where you have a cultural consumer, you also have a cultural producer. ... I do think there was a significant Palestinian agency from at least certain groups...creating a certain image of Palestine for tourism.” (24:01)
  • Local industries (e.g., Bethlehem’s mother-of-pearl trade), hospitality, and urban infrastructure all contributed to an evolving image of the Holy Land for global audiences.

Jerusalem as a Modern City

• Architectural & Political Transformations
  • Photographs reveal Jerusalem not as a static relic but as a site of intense contestation, redevelopment, and modernization by competing religious and national groups.
  • Detailed accounts like the fate of a contested pillar at the Church of All Nations demonstrate the micro-politics of space and identity: “We were talking about writing a whole new religious cartography, but in very modern ways...” (31:19)
  • The British Pro-Jerusalem Society’s urban-planning efforts strove to “aestheticize” and regiment the city, with legacies still visible today.

Methodology: Reading Photographs Through Biblical Texts

• Cross-Referencing Images and Verses
  • Scholten frequently paired photographs with biblical or scholarly references, sometimes suggestive or critical of contemporary events and power:
  • Example: Photograph of a British police band in front of Jaffa’s Ottoman clock tower, coupled with biblical verses critiquing “false kingship.”
    • “When you start actually reading these images through this biblical text, you start to gain this fascinating insight not just into Scholten's mind and way of thinking, but also into what's happening in Palestinian society from his particularized perspective.” (39:04–40:57)

Photographs as Historical Sources

• Benefits & Limitations
  • Zananiri likens photographs to diaries in their subjectivity: “We also need to look at a photo collection like this as being through the prism of an individual.” (43:13)
  • Visual sources can access dimensions of social life—non-elite, non-textual, or marginal experiences—rarely present in written records, such as the everyday atmosphere at public events like the Nabi Musa festival.

Biblical Indigeneity

• Constructed Performances of "Nativeness"
  • Zananiri dissects how multiple Palestinian groups and nationalistic circles, both local and incoming, performed and constructed their indigeneity—sometimes through staged photographs, costuming, and strategic use of biblical motifs.
  • The “classic” image of a shepherd became part of both colonial/proto-Zionist fantasies and emergent Palestinian nationalism: “...using it as a means of either reclaiming self or claiming land or making colonial claim or whatever it is.” (52:50)

Masculinity, Labor, and Competing Nationalisms

• Visualizing Homosocial & National Spaces
  • Scholten’s numerous images of men—workers, soldiers, laborers—reflect his interests but also mirror the birth of new nationalist masculinities (Palestinian and Zionist) and class formations.
  • His photos of workplaces, factories, and the military break with typical Western representations; they were often imbued with subtle queer sensibility and biblical references (see the anecdote about the tanner photograph and attached Talmudic verse, 58:00–61:30):
    • “The sense of occupying these very working class spaces ... sets him up to look at a side of Palestinian society that most other photographers would not have been interested in.” (57:46)

Scholten’s Archive as an "Elegy" to Palestinian Modernity

• Revealing Pluralism and Lost Futures
  • Scholten’s photographs document a multi-layered society in flux, on the threshold of major colonial and demographic transformations.
  • Zananiri insists the archive captures possibilities “that actually upends a narrative of two completely different groups that were completely socially isolated.” (67:53)
  • Ultimately, the work is described as an “elegy” to a pluralist, interconnected Palestinian modernity that was soon overtaken by conflict and segregation:
    • “For me...this is a moment where a society was cautiously beginning to think about its future, also thinking about its own plurality....the elegy here really is...this project of plurality... that’s actually really pretty international and very well networked globally...” (69:01–70:55)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Scholten’s Unique Perspective
  • “He is an incredibly colorful and eccentric figure...sitting there in some ways, in this amazing queer milieu that is involved in early gay rights and the sort of scholarly work around queerness at a very early stage, but also somebody who was involved in these kind of queer undergrounds as well.” (07:27)
• On Modernity vs. Tradition
  • “There’s so much modernity, so much urban life, so much, you know, I mean, even in the photos of villages, there are images of how villages were changing.” (17:20)
• On Palestinian Agency
  • “Of course, where you have a cultural consumer, you also have a cultural producer. And there is a relationship between someone who's producing culture and someone who is consuming culture. And I think this is a very blurry space.” (24:14)
• On Reading Images Through Bible Verses
  • “Here we have somebody who is using these biblical verses as a criticism of this event and then showing in a very humorous and sarcastic way the implications of the beginnings of British rule in mandate Palestine through this audience who are just so disinterested.” (38:52)
• On Photographs as Evidence
  • “What we have is a sense of everyday people who are participating in this event...that’s a very different thing to a narration in a diary...We see things like the magic wonder boxes, you know, the Sundu elijah. You know, we actually see them, and we see how people are interacting with them.” (44:09)
• On Biblical Indigeneity
  • “These people...have a physical proximity...here we've got this practice which is kind of on the one hand a bit humorous and a little bit like inhabiting a certain personality, but on the other hand is also kind of proving a certain nationalism...” (51:57)
• On Lost Pluralism (“Elegy” to Palestinian Modernity)
  • “He shows it as a whole ecosystem of a whole bunch of different groups of people...for me, the elegy here really is this project of plurality... this space that's actually really pretty international and very well networked globally...” (69:01–70:20)

Timestamps for Important Segments

| Time | Segment | |----------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:31 | Introduction of Sari Zananiri & episode context | | 03:20 | Zananiri’s academic background and genesis of the Scholten project | | 06:23 | Scholten’s biography: identity, legal troubles, religious conversion | | 15:33 | The nature and aims of Scholten’s photographic project, illustrated Bible | | 22:48 | Discussion of concepts: Biblical mirroring & Palestinian agency | | 27:38 | Jerusalem’s architectural and urban transformation during Mandate period | | 34:43 | Scholten’s use of biblical texts with photographs; methodology for interpreting his work | | 42:07 | Photographic evidence for everyday life, elite and non-elite; reading images vs. written sources | | 48:02 | “Biblical indigeneity” and the performance of national and religious identity | | 56:10 | The spectrum of masculinity, labor, and nationalism in Scholten’s archive | | 65:34 | What Scholten’s archive teaches about the period and “roads not taken;” the book as elegy | | 71:33 | Closing remarks by host and guest |

Conclusion: Why This Matters

The episode provides a richly textured exploration of how a nearly-forgotten Dutch photographer’s work opens new vistas for understanding Palestinian society, identity, and the contested projection of modernity between empires, nationalism, and global audiences. Sary Zananiri’s research underscores the value of visual sources and marginal voices for reconstructing more plural and nuanced histories of the region—ones attuned both to non-elite agency and the lost possibilities of coexistence and modern pluralism.

Recommended for:
Listeners interested in Middle Eastern history, visual culture, queer history, colonialism, and the politics of modernity and heritage.

Access Scholten’s archive: Online via the University of Leiden.

[End of Summary]