When Albert Hotz, in the 1890’s, made photographs of Iran and collected the images taken by other photographers (Ernst Hoeltzer and Antoin Sevruguin, to name but the two most important ones), he had in mind to document the country and its inhabitants as much as possible. It is not suprising that Hotz, being an entrepreneur, would give much attention to indigenous products that might be useful to his activities and advantagehous to his commercial interests. Agricultural products (including opium), textiles, minerals, finance, transport and communications. But Hotz was much more than a trader with a feeling for documentation. He was an open-minded collector with a wide interest. Landscapes, architecture, people and historical places interested him as much as the commercial potential of the country. This is borne out by the fact that he bought together far more material than he ever could use for his primary goal, his commerce. It can equally be seen from his impressive library and from his extensive reference collection of offprint’s and ephemeral publications on a great variety of subjects, which made him in course of time a student of the history of Iran and an author on aspects of the history of the relations between Iran and the Netherlands. Finally, it can be seen from his collection of more than 100 photographs, about two thirds of which are from Iran and neighbouring countries. At a more advanced age he would collect his own life by keeping extensive diaries which provide us with a multitude of details about almost each of his own preoccupations.

Read Full Article >>
[Acrobat Reader required]