Hoeltzer, Ernst (1835-1911), German engineer employed by the Indo-European Telegraph Department who took up photography and established a commercial studio in Isfahan. During almost 30 years' activity in Iran (1871-98), he made over 3, 000 negatives using the collodion process. Although only a third of his total oeuvre has survived, his photographs provide an unparalleled view of life in Isfahan and throughout Iran during the period. His work differs in subject matter and orientation from that of other Western photographers, perhaps because his marriage to an Armenian woman gave him a more intimate window into the life of the inhabitants.
— Kathleen Howe
Bibliography
- Scarce, J., ‘Isfahan in Camera: 19th-Century Persia through the Photographs of Ernest Hoeltzer’,
Art and Archaeology Research Papers (Apr. 1976)
