When the new science of photography was developed in the 1830s, the world became instantly accessible in a way it never had been before. Photographers turned first to the places that burned brightest in people's imaginations, none more than that sliver of Earth called the Holy Land.There was just one problem.
"They encountered the fact that this incredibly important … land didn't have a lot of appeal in a photograph," said Kathleen Stewart Howe, the curator of an exhibition that opened this week at the Getty Villa, "In Search of Biblical Lands: From Jerusalem to Jordan in 19th Century Photography."