Luigi Pesce in Iran

Luigi Pesce (1828 –1864) was an Italian colonel and photographer who traveled to Iran in 1848, during the reign of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar, to help train Iranian army. Pesce brought a camera to Iran in 1852 and took what are said to the first first photographs taken of the country. These photos, now in the Met, were in an album that Pesce presented to the Shah in 1858. That's the Shah above.

Views of Teheran; immediately above is the "ordinary" throne.

Persepolis

Medieval ruins.

Relief, and detail showing the shah hunting flying pigs.