ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines an anthropological approach to the study of Bedouin photography and photographs. It discusses a series of analytics to better account for the duality of photographs as being both a symbolic, culturally formed image of an observed reality and a visible ‘object’ travelling in space and time. The chapter then puts forward the notion of entangled visual economies to account for reticular representational landscapes in transregional places like the Naqab Desert where members’ diverse encounters and layered connectivities frame how photographs shape and are shaped by Bedouin histories. In all, this chapter outlines a more nuanced approach to the study of visual practices in the Palestinian-Israeli context, one that highlights the capacity of photographs for re-reading histories and their ability to acquire biographies of value in multiple networks, multiple relationships, and multiple perceptions of the past.
