Seeing Arabia is a new book by George Thompson published in 2024 by the Lorenzo de’ Medici Press in association with the T. E. Lawrence Society. It is a unique publication because it is the first one to evaluate T. E. Lawrence’s wartime photographs as both visual and historic objects. This 140 page book features 6 maps; over 165 photographs; a forward by Alan Wakefield, Head of First World War & Early 20th Century Conflict, Imperial War Museum; and a postscript by Jay Winter, Charles J. Stille Professor of History Emeritus, Department History, Yale University.
What makes this an important study is the narrative combined with its images offers a new entry point into one of the most complex and enigmatic men of the 20th century. These little seen photographs give one a new appreciation of Lawrence as a visual thinker and provide us with the means to better understand this man and his war.
George Thompson resides in the Greater Kansas City area of the United States where he devotes his time to lecturing, writing and developing programs on the First World War. His current focus is on the life of T. E. Lawrence. He brings to this subject his preparation as a historian and visual artist by earning graduate degrees in modern European history and a Master of Fine Arts.
Added to these are his over 25 years of experience as a university professor, academic administrator and a record of exhibitions and public programs. Over the last several years he applied his training and experience to the examination of how photography was used in the First World War. This research led him to discover the remarkable body of photographs taken by T. E. Lawrence and in particular those images he took during his time in Arabia. The outcome of this discovery is now encapsulated in Seeing Arabia which endeavors to state why Lawrence’s images show him to be a remarkable visual thinker.
Seeing Arabia The personal photographs of Lawrence of Arabia
Lorenzo de’ Medici Press
ISBN 979-12-80527-17-2
www.lorzenzodemedicipress.it
Price: £25/ €28/ USD 28