Faith and Photography: Auguste Salzmann in the Holy Land

This exhibition will be the first devoted exclusively to the career of Auguste Salzmann (1824–1872), the French academic painter, archaeologist, and photographer who, in 1853, embarked on the arduous journey from Paris to Jerusalem. Hoping to verify religious faith through the objective documentation of the city's holy sites, he turned to photography, creating one of the most enigmatic bodies of work of the 19th century.

Despite a high-caliber photographic oeuvre of great variation and creativity, Salzmann remains relatively unknown. Some three dozen rare salted paper prints from paper negatives have been selected from his influential 1856 album, Jerusalem: A Study and Photographic Reproduction of the Monuments of the Holy City. All the works are in the Gilman Collection of The Met's Department of Photographs.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.