Site-Seeing: Postcards of the Middle East and the Visual Construction of Place, 1890s to 1990s

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How is a sense of place visually constructed and communicated? How do certain views of places or landscapes become iconic, transforming 'sites' into 'sights'? How do these authoritative images evolve in the context of wider political, social and economic changes? This project examines the role of the picture postcard as a crucial technology of twentieth-century visual culture and modern place-making. To do so, it draws on the BM's expansive collection of postcards of the Middle East, spanning colonial and postcolonial periods, and analyses the production and use of these postcards both as visual media and as material objects.