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Abstract

The museification of Central Asian arts and crafts, which commenced with the international industrial exhibition in Vienna in 1873, is intricately linked to the collection and archiving of photographs from Central Asia. My research presents the history of the photographic collection at the Weltmuseum Wien (Vienna, Austria), with a particular focus on images related to the Turkmen people and their surroundings around the year 1900. This study explores the various historical protagonists who have contributed to the photography collection’s ecosystem and epistemology. A key figure is ethnologist Franz Heger (1884-1919), the first director of the Weltmuseum Wien, formerly known as the Anthropologisch-Ethnographischen Abteilung des „k. k. Naturhistorischen Hofmuseums.” Heger’s travel to the Caucasus, Russian Turkestan and Transcaspian region between 1881 and 1893 significantly enriched the museum’s Central Asian photography collection which serves as a foundation for this inquiry. Nevertheless, my examination of the photography collection aims to recenter the agency of practitioners from the Global South and/or local actors. Therefore, I will also analyze the work of photographer Alexander Karlovic Engel (1848 – 1918), who was active in Central Asia and the Northern Caucasus around 1900, among others.