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Description: The Arab Imago: A Social History of Portrait Photography, 1860–1910
Acknowledgments
PublisherPrinceton University Press
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00119.002
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Acknowledgments
I am struck by how this project has enacted a projective identification with the topic itself. Like the portrait, the research holds so much history; it contains so many layers; it speaks and it remains silent of its own production. The book operates on multiple levels of identification and ideology and expresses both a personal interiority and a collective subjectivity. Yet, also like the portrait, multitudes lie outside of this manuscript; so much has not made its way in, so much sits adjacent to it staring from the outside. The project, let alone the book, holds a dear amount of emotional energy that lies far beyond its eccéité. One thing that is certain undergirds the mass of material collected for this book and brings together the thousands of hours and tens of thousands of miles between four continents and numerous libraries, archives, and collections. This is the aid, friendship, generosity, patience, care, and love of so many people.
I could not have dared to start the Promethean task of excavating the vast uncharted terrain of Ottoman Arab photography without the help of archivists and librarians in Europe, North America, and the Middle East. I offer profound thanks to Yasmine Chamali and the Fouad Debbas Collection in Beirut, and Jeanette Sarouphim at the Institute of Palestine Studies in Beirut; Debbie Usher at Oxford’s St. Antony’s College Middle East Centre Archive; Joanne Bloom and Andras Riedlmayer at Harvard’s Fine Arts Library; Zeina Arida and the staff at the Arab Image Foundation; Tracy Schuster at the Getty Research Institute; Muhannad Salhi at the Library of Congress’s African and Middle East Division; Jan Just Witkam in Leiden and Claude Sui at Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen in Mannheim. All of these archivists share an intricate and intimate knowledge of their collections, compounded with a generous spirit and eagerness to help. Likewise, I thank the staff at the American University of Beirut, the Lebanese National Archives in Beirut, Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, the Mohammed Ali Foundation and Abbas Hilmi Collection at Durham University, and Dar al-Kalima in Bethlehem, along with Rachel Alma Lev and Paul Vester at the American Colony of Jerusalem, Constantia Nicolaides at the National Portrait Gallery in London, and Jesse Peers and Joe Struble at the George Eastman Legacy Collection at George Eastman House. Special thanks are due to Sura and Saeb Salam, His Excellency Prime Minister Tammam Salam, and Mr. Hallaq, the archivist for the Salam family collection, for facilitating several visits to their family archive. I would also like to thank my editors Lisa Hacken and Beth Gianfagna, who were professional, pleasant, thorough, and gentle. Particular thanks go to Princeton University Press, especially to Hanna Winarsky and Michelle Komie, who have been kind, responsive, helpful, and immeasurably patient, considering that completion of this book was interrupted by the loss of two hard drives, the publication of my book Islamophobia, and many more tribulations and blessings.
A massive number of photographs from institutional and personal collections in the Middle East and Europe did not make their way into this book, partially because copyright permissions were not given. For this reason, it is even more important to acknowledge that the images in this book have been reproduced with the permission of the Sadek, Saddic, Salem, and Rebeiz families in Ottawa, Philadelphia, and Beirut, respectively. Institutions that have permitted me to reproduce photographs in their collections are, in Lebanon, the Fouad Debbas Collection, the Institute of Palestine Studies, the Arab Image Foundation, the American University of Beirut, and the Lebanese National Archives; in Great Britain, the Middle East Centre Archive at St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford, the National Portrait Gallery and the Mohamed Ali Foundation in London, and the Abbas Hilmi Collection at Durham University Library; in Cairo, the American University of Cairo; in Amman, the Khaled Shouman Foundation and Darat al-Funun; in Mannheim, Germany, the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen; and in the United States, Harvard University Library—especially the Fine Arts Library, the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, the Zaidan Foundation in Bethesda, and the Library of Congress.
This book is indebted to the time and generosity of Muhammad Alwan, Isis Sadek, Gamil Sadek, and George Zaidan of the Zaidan Foundation, who generously shared their personal collections with me along with their invaluable knowledge. Richard Milosh in Australia was lavish in supplying me with an oral and written history of the fascinating Arakel Artinian and Studio Venus. A very special thanks goes to the tireless and unrecognized research on Louis Saboungi by Özcan Geçer in Istanbul, whose generosity, sincerity, and friendship have been overwhelming, and whose work on Louis Saboungi needs public recognition. Also, I thank Rogier Visser for access to his wonderful dissertation. My respects and thanks to the late and legendary Kemal Rebeiz for many early morning meetings and for providing me access to his archive as well as a volume of anecdotal information. Ola Seif, curator of the Photography Collection at the American University of Cairo, deserves an exceptional thanks and acknowledgment. She is not only the most helpful, informed, untapped resource on photography in Egypt, but also, her generosity, kindness, and friendship have taught me much personally and professionally and undoubtedly have enriched this book.
Ahmad Dallal, Patrick McGreevy, Robert Myers, Waleed Hazbun, Samir Seikaly, and Nadia El Cheikh graciously facilitated a research faculty affiliation at the American University of Beirut through the Center for Arab and Middle East Studies and the Center for American Studies and Research in the fall of 2013 and summers of 2010 and 2012, which permitted me access to Jaffet Library, which served as an anchor and “go-to” for this book’s research. Similarly, Zeina Arida and the staff not only provided me with regular access to the unparalleled collection at the Arab Image Foundation in Beirut since the earliest days of its inception, but also, most recently, aided the completion of my research when I was a Fellow in the fall of 2014.
My colleagues and the administrations at the American University of Beirut, University of South Carolina, and the College of William and Mary have been an unwavering source of financial and collegial support. It has also been a pleasure and honor to be appointed as the Sultan Qaboos bin Said Professor of Middle East Studies at the College of William and Mary. The chair is a consequence of a generous endowment by the Sultan Qaboos Higher Center for Culture and the Sciences in Oman. The provosts’ and dean’s offices at the College of William and Mary, American University of Beirut, and University of South Carolina, along with a summer grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, underwrote much of my travel and research. Equally important, the intellectual sustenance and friendship that my colleagues provided at these institutions fueled completion of this work. In addition to my stellar colleagues and friends at the American University of Beirut; the Language, Literature, and Cultures Department at the University of South Carolina; and the Modern Language and Literature Department at William and Mary, my main man, Michael Gibbs Hill, and dear friends Nicholas Vazsonyi, Agnes Mueller, Paul Allen Miller, akhi al-ʿaziz Wadie Said, rifaqayni Daniel Drennan, Rami Zurayq, John Eisele, Kate Conley, Lu Ann Hamza, Bill Fairchild, Lara Ducate, Maryse Fauvel, Francie Cate-Arries, Mona Harb, Jonathan Glasser, Yvonne Ivory, Nina Moreno, Robert Myers, Isis Sadek, Robert Smith, Sibel Zandi-Sayek, and Chitralekha Zutshi deserve particular thanks.
No doubt, the list of friends, colleagues, and staff that warrant my gratitude outstretches the limitations of these acknowledgments. However, the quality and scope of this book would have been significantly diminished without the friendship, feedback, guidance, support, and scholarly advice of my blood, George Azar and Mariam Shahin; my admired friend, chef, and scholar Ali Behdad; Ustadhi al-awal Peter Gran; my sister-in-arms Michelle Hartman; West Coast comrade Akira Mizuta Lippit; rafiqi al-ʿaziz Issam Nassar; ahabb sahabi Walid Raad; sadiq tufulati Walid Sadek; my truest brother, Ara Sarafian; my beloved mentor, Peter Sluglett; and atyab sadiqati, Eve Trout Powell. Also, heartfelt thanks go to Salim Tamari, Margot Badran, Elizabeth Frierson, Jens Hanssen, Anneka Lenssen, Nancy Micklewright, Afsaneh Najmabadi, Christopher Pinney, Sarah Rogers Qutbi, Lucie Ryzova, Nada Shabout, and Ella Shohat for the critical discussions, suggestions, conversations, comments, and support over the years of this project.
Finally, the journey of this book has been completed only through the love, support, friendship, kindness, generosity, and humor of my family. Thank you to my loving parents, Patricia and Wade Cameron, who have always been supportive and understanding of my scholarship and overcommitted schedule but also continue to be a source of love. To my beloved in-laws, Wajdi and Rima Masri and my sweet yet stylish brother-in-law, Ziad Masri, whose love for me, my wife, and our children have been the bedrock upon which we all continue to rely. Most of all, I thank my loving wife, Lara Sheehi, and our two effervescent and luminous children, Jad and Shadee. My children’s friendship, humor, and energy kept me intellectually sharp and buoyant while dashing between kitchen, desk, and airports. On the most practical level, my soul mate, confidante, and best friend Lara remains my most diligent editor and sounding board, tireless, boundless, and nurturing. Without her, this project, along with my soul, would never have seen the sunlight of day. On the level of sublimity, Lara’s, Jad’s, and Shadee’s love, individually and jointly, fueled me during many long hours and inspired me to navigate, if not complete, long geographic as well as emotional journeys and battles. This book is a by-product of the rich life that they have given me. On the shelf, I pray that it looks back at them and assures them that their love, sacrifice, and support made this book possible and my life worth living.
Acknowledgments
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