Frank Scholten
{{Short description|Dutch photographer and author}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Frank Scholten
| image = NINO-004 F-Scholten.tif
| alt = Frank Scholten with fez
| caption = Frank Scholten, ca. 1924
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1881|08|30|df=y}}
| birth_place = Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1942|08|29|1881|08|30|df=y}}
| death_place = Leiden, the Netherlands
| nationality = Dutch
| other_names =
| occupation = photographer, author
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works = La Palestine illustrée, I La Porte d'entrée Jaffa, and II Jaffa la belle, Paris 1929
}}
François "Frank" Scholten (30 August 1881 – 29 August 1942) was a Dutch photographer and author.
Family
Frank Scholten was the second child of investment broker Petrus Wilhelmus Scholten (1835–1913) and jonkvrouw Elisabeth Maria Anna Henrietta van Bevervoorden tot Oldemeule (1876–1889). He spent his childhood in Amsterdam and Portsmouth. After the death of his mother, his father remarried jonkvrouw (Dutch for female squire) Maria Anna Ploos van Amstel; two further children were born from this marriage.{{cite journal |url=https://depthoffield.universiteitleiden.nl/2540f05en/ |title=Frank Scholten |last=Kwiecień |first=Teresa Lidia |date=December 2008 |publisher=Centre for Digital Scholarship |access-date=1 April 2023 |journal=Photolexicon |volume=25 |issue=40}}
Youth
At age sixteen Scholten moved to a boarding school for boys from well-to-do-families in Noordwijk. He studied art, music, and philosophy in Berlin from 1908 until the start of the First World War, which forced him to return to Amsterdam. He was acquainted with Jacob Israël de Haan, whom he later met again in Palestine, and he was involved in the Amsterdam gay scene.{{cite book |last= Fontijn |first=Jan |date=2015 |title=Onrust: het leven van Jacob Israël de Haan. |location=Amsterdam |publisher=De Bezige Bij |pages=113, 488, 671 |isbn=9789023491514 |language=Dutch}} In 1920 he was sentenced to two years in prison for pederasty, but left the country.{{cite book |last=van Os |first=Th. |date=2018 |title=Onder de toonbank. Pornografie en erotica in de Nederlanden |editor-last1= Sliggers |editor-first1=B. |editor-last2= van Watersloot |editor-first2=Jos |chapter=Weinig windt zo op tot lust en veroordeling. Homo-erotiek en -pornografie in Nederland van nul tot nu |trans-title= |language=Dutch |location=Amsterdam |publisher=Van Oorschot |isbn=9789028280359 |page=173}}
Photographic travels
Scholten made a long journey via Cologne, Rome (where he spent several months), Brindisi and Athens to Palestine. He then spent three years in Palestine, traveling the region, and photographing people and biblical places.{{cite book |last=Zananiri |first=S. |date=2021 |title=Imaging and Imagining Palestine Photography, Modernity and the Biblical Lens, 1918–1948 |volume=3 |series=Open Jerusalem |editor-last1=Sanchez Summerer |editor-first1=K. |editor-last2=Zananiri |editor-first2=S. |url=https://brill.com/view/title/55370 |location=Leiden/Boston |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-43793-7 |chapter=Documenting the Social: Frank Scholten Taxonomising Identity in British Mandate Palestine}}
Publications
Having returned to Europe in early 1923, he exhibited a selection of 2200 of his photos at the Brook Art Gallery in Londen. The exhibition, titled "Palestine in Transition", was favourably reviewed in many English and foreign newspapers.
He then started the publication of his photographs in a series of volumes titles Palestine Illustrated. The first two volumes appeared in a French edition in 1929 and contained photos of Jaffa, combined with verses from the Bible, the Talmud and the Quran. As a result of the Wall Street crash of 1929 Scholten lost a large sum of money, but nevertheless continued publication of his two volumes in German, English and Dutch editions. Further volumes were projected but never published.
As the Second World War made travel in Europe impossible, Scholten took up residence in Leiden. He continued working on his publications at the library of the Netherlands Institute for the Near East (Dutch language: Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, NINO). He had befriended Franz Böhl, one of its two directors (and Professor of Assyriology at Leiden University; previously of Hebrew at Groningen).
Legacy
Scholten died in 1942. He bequeathed his photographic archive and documentation to NINO, and his capital to the city of Leiden. The municipality created the Frank Scholten Fund, which served to finance the publication of several scholarly books in a Scholten memorial series by NINO (ca. 1950–1980), and provided loans for the acquisition of the institute's housing.{{cite book |last1=van Zoest |first1=C.H. |last2=Berntsen |first2=S.R.L. |date=2014 |title=Waar de geschiedenis begon: Nederlandse onderzoekers in de ban van spijkerschrift, hiërogliefen en aardewerk. Uitgave naar aanleiding van het 75-jarig bestaan van het Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, 1939–2014 |editor-last1= Kaper |editor-first1=O.E.|editor-last2=Dercksen |editor-first2=J.G. |trans-title= |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/8753259 |url-access= |language=Dutch |location=Leiden |publisher=NINO |isbn=9789062582488 |chapter=75 jaar NINO: Geschiedenis van het Instituut in hoofdlijnen |pages=3–29}}
In the early 2000s Scholten's photo archive was rediscovered at NINO. In 2019–2020 a project was initiated at Leiden University for the complete digitization and cataloguing of the collection.
Some photographs by Scholten
67. Couvent russe, 68 Soeur russe - F. Scholten, La Palestine illustrée, 1929 p. 36.jpg|La Palestine illustrée (1929). Photo 67.
File:Al-Amari mosque and the street next to it, NINO F Scholten Tiberiade 01.tiff|Al-Amari Zidani mosque, Tiberias.
NINOFrankScholten043.jpg|Palestine (1920s).
CityJudgeJaffa1920s-Scholten.jpg|Judge in Jaffa (1920s).
Immigr.Jaffa1921-1923-Scholten.jpg|Immigrants in Jaffa.
File:Issa al Issa.jpg|Palestinian journalist Issa El-Issa holding his daughter Raja in Jaffa.
File:MelkiteJaffa1920s-Scholten.jpg|Melkite priest in Jaffa.
PalestineCar1920s-Scholten.jpg|Boys in Palestina.
Armed men standing around a camera on a tripod, NINO F Scholten photographic print 01 556.tiff|Armed men around a film camera
NINO F Scholten Jaffa Tel Aviv Sarona 04-04.jpg|Self portrait in a mirror.
Published works
- La Palestine Illustrée. Tableau complet de la terre Sainte par la photographie, Évoquant les souvenirs de la bible, du talmud et du coran, et se rapportant au passé comme au présent. Vol. I: La Porte d’entrée Jaffa; Vol. II: Jaffa la Belle. Parijs: Budry, 1929.
- Palästina. Bibel, Talmud, Koran. Eine vollständige Darstellung aller Textstellen in eigenen künstlerischen Aufnahmen aus der Gegenwart und Vergangenheit des Heiligen Landes. Vol. I: Die Eingangspforte Jaffa; Vol. II: Jaffa, die Schöne. Stuttgart: Julius Hoffmann, 1930.
- Palestine Illustrated. Including references to passages illustrated in the Bible, the Talmud and the Koran. Vol. I: The Gate of Entrance; Vol. II: Jaffa the Beautiful. Londen: Longmans, 1931.
- Palestina. Bijbel, Talmud, Koran. Een volledige illustratie van alle teksten door middel van eigen artistieke foto’s uit het heden en verleden van het Heilig Land. Vol. I: Jaffa de toegangspoort. Leiden: Sijthoff, 1935.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category}}
- {{cite web |url=https://digitalcollections.universiteitleiden.nl/view/collection/frankscholten |title=Frank Scholten Photographs. Travel and street photography made in Europe and Palestina by Frank Scholten |date=2022 |website=digitalcollections.universiteitleiden.nl |publisher=Leiden University Libraries |access-date=1 April 2023 |quote=Frank Scholten was an artist from Amsterdam who travelled to Palestine in the years 1921-1923, taking pictures with the purpose of compiling an illustrated Bible. Besides the many photographs with a biblical context, he also captured the country and its people with the utmost precision.}} Completely digitized photo collection.
- {{cite web |url=http://www.nino-leiden.nl/collections/frank-scholten-legacy |title=Frank Scholten legacy |website=nino-leiden.nl |publisher=Netherlands Institute for the Near East |access-date=1 April 2023 |quote=The Scholten Photographic Collection comprises ca. 22,000 original photographs that Frank Scholten took on his travels through the Middle East in 1920-1923. The images have been digitised and are available in open access.}}
- {{cite web |url=https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/crossroads/frank-scholten |title=Frank Scholten. CrossRoads is actively working on the Frank Scholten uncatalogued collection. |date=2020 |website=universiteitleiden.nl |access-date=1 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200318224902/https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/crossroads/frank-scholten |archive-date=18 March 2020 }} CrossRoads Project at Leiden University.
- {{cite web |url=https://www.rug.nl/library/heritage/exhibitions/current-exhibitions/frank-scholten/ |title=Arab Orthodox Christians, Nationalism and the 'Holy Land'. Exhibition University Library, RUG January-May 2023 |date=2023 |website=rug.nl/library/ |publisher=Rijksuniversiteit Groningen |access-date=1 April 2023 |quote=Frank Scholten in context. During the turbulence of the period after the First World War, Dutch photographer Frank Scholten (1881-1942) travelled to Palestine with the aim of producing an 'illustrated Bible'.}}
- {{cite web |url=https://weblectures.leidenuniv.nl/Mediasite/Play/96e16b0520bb48e0ba0c2e65e3c25ef01d |title=Mini-Symposium Palestinian History in Frame – Frank Scholten Photographs |date=30 March 2023 |website=weblectures.leidenuniv.nl |publisher=NINO – Leiden University Libraries |access-date=1 April 2023 }} Video. Duration 2h 10m 07 s.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Scholten, Frank}}
Category:20th-century Dutch photographers
Category:20th-century Dutch male writers
Category:Dutch LGBTQ photographers
Category:Dutch people convicted of child sexual abuse
Category:Photographers from Amsterdam
Category:Writers from Amsterdam
Category:20th-century Dutch LGBTQ people