As in his previous body of work Imperium Romanum, here Austrian photographer Alfred Seiland (born 1952) depicts astonishing juxtapositions, chasms and tensions between the persistence of the ancient and the transformations of the modern. One of Austria’s first photographers to work exclusively in color, Seiland creates images that feel both sensuous and political as he simultaneously addresses ancient Persia and contemporary Iran through its architecture, people and landscapes. Sometimes the collision of past and present is shocking and sudden, and not necessarily attributable to modernization: for example, one photograph in the series depicts Arg-e Bam, once the largest adobe building in the world, which was almost entirely razed to the ground by a 6.6-magnitude earthquake in 2003, which killed around 32,000 people.
Published by Skira. Edited by Filippo Maggia, Francesca Morandini.
Austrian photographer Alfred Seiland’s (born 1952) captures contemporary images of the Roman Empire, depicting archaeological sites in over 40 countries—Rome, Palmyra, Samaria, Epidaurus and more. Seiland’s photographs explore conflicts between the ancient and modern worlds and the struggle to protect these ancient cultural assets.
Alfred Seiland (born 1952) has for many years been visiting the sites of antiquity around the Mediterranean, capturing them with his analog, large-format camera. His destinations are the ruins of the Roman Empire from Egypt, Libya and Israel to Italy, and the museums of Spain to Turkey. His locations are often difficult to access and in some cases are not even open to the public, remaining concealed from tourists. Seiland's photographs confront the viewer with themes that shed light on the conflict between antiquity and modernity. They show us the famous arenas of history with their architecture, sculpture and works of art. Employing color like a painter, Seiland condenses moments into perfect compositions. Yet some of the images are unsettling, telling as they do time and again of man's destruction of antique legacies.
Alfred Seiland: Imperivm Romanvm
Alfred Seiland: Imperium Romanum Opus Extractum