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shade maps new york city
rat rock bike park
the tomb of the unknown soldier
new cartographies of the middle east
photographic research
published in studio magazine 001
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This project investigates the relationship between narrative and form in the context of Middle Eastern studio photography. Two photobooks that attempt to achieve similar goals, to typify the Middle East, are put into conversation with each other, and it is found that the direction of the relationship between image production and meaning-making is crucial to the authenticity of the expression of the Middle Eastern individual with the photography studio acting as a controlled environment. Both the form of the photography in each photobook and the form of the photobooks themselves are analyzed to describe the mechanisms by which the narratives within each take form. These mechanisms are put into context by detailing the impetus behind the production of each photobook, revealing how each are a product of differing ethnographic efforts throughout history.