Ultimately, von Busse’s carefully assembled archives, comprising those staged professional views and the intimate, compelling candid shots, serve as a profound window into a past both ancient and recent. They are a permanent visual record of the intersection between a collapsing, ancient empire (Achaemenid Persia) and the burgeoning, scientific, early 20th-century Western world. Through his saved copies, the German photographer offered not just documentation, but a deeply personal, curated vision of the monumental undertaking at Persepolis, forever tying his name to the magnificent ruins near the modern city of Shiraz.
