Myron Bement Smith (MBS) focused his research and photographic interest on the Islamic architecture of the Isfahan area and in particular the Masjid-i Jomeh. He also visited and documented many other Iranian Islamic monuments as well as contemporary building techniques, villages and landscapes. MBS' architectural photography is meticulous and records not just interiors and exteriors of buildings and their settings but also important architectural features and details. In keeping with his interest in photodocumentation as an important research tool, he took many photographs of each monument and returned to a monument many times during his time in Iran. MBS kept notebooks that included information on camera settings, film and ambient conditions. He used a 35 mm Leica and a large format film camera. Photographs taken with the Leica are designated with an alphanumeric beginning with L and large format film photographs with a plain number. His negative registers for Iran consist of large ledgers with a contact print and information about site, feature and date photographed. Not all entries are complete. MBS also created a Persian Monuments Large Photo File arranged by province that includes enlargments of some of his Iranian photographs; criteria for inclusion is unclear. Also available is a card file containing 4" by 6" prints from many of MBS' Iran negatives arranged in numerical order. Reprints of some of MBS' non-Iranian negatives and slides are included separately. [For more information on MBS' photograph coding system see Subseries 2.1]
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Collection Citation:
The Myron Bement Smith Collection, FSA A.04. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of Katherine Dennis Smith.
