de.hypothesesIn the 19th century, Russia used photography and cartography not only to document, but to assert control over Central Asia. The Turkestan Album reveals how visual media served imperial ambitions & the shaping of national identity ⬇
The Turkestan Album: War and Peace of Maps and Photographs
The Russian campaign in Central Asia can be viewed as an episode in the long history of this territory. Claiming the city of Tashkent in 1865, the fortress of Samarkand in 1868 and the Khanate of Khiva in 1873 were all ground-breaking events of Central Asia’s incorporation into the Russian Empire (cf. fig. 1), impulsive and unsystematic as it was....