Schulz-Dornburg’s most recent photobook The Division of the World focuses on a previously unpublished body of work made in the Archivo General de Indias in Seville before its renovation. Housed in a renaissance building, the archive was established in 1785 and contains approximately 300 years of Spanish colonial history. Housing some 90 million documents the archives includes items such as Christopher Columbus’ logbook and the famous Treaty of Tordesillas.
Captured by Schulz-Dornburg in her straight, methodical style, the images reveal the expansive physical mass of material held in the archive. The images, depicting row upon row of leather bound books stored for prosperity in this formal setting, seem at odds with the information that they hold. A relic of an old system no longer. A relic from a colonial system which no longer aligns with the contemporary world.
Alongside Schulz-Dornburg’s images the book also includes an essay by historian Martin Zimmermann.