Erich Holm von Prosch (1909-1994) 

The geologist Dr. Erich Holm von Prosch was one of the few Europeans who worked in the 1950s in Northern Yemen for a longer period. During the reign of Imam Ahmad bin Yahya (1948-1962) he lived from 1954 to 1956 in Salif on the Red Sea with a group of geologists, geophysicists and topographers (C. Deilmann, Prakla) in a newly built camp to explore the possibilities of a successful search for crude oil in the Tihama.

During his stay in Yemen he kept systematical diaries and left an extensive collection of black and white photos, negatives and colored slides, all authentic material dokumenting Yemen at a specific period when the country made the first steps in modern times. His intersting photo collection now belongs to the image archives Das Bild des Orients.

A part of the collections is already online, see Historical Images. A first article, well illustrated, has been published in the latest volume of the Jemen Report, vol. 49, 2018, 1-2, pp. 85-96 to the PDF.

Erich Holm von Prosch worked in 1951 for some weeks in Turkey, too, in difficult to reach (only with official permission) South East Anatolia Maden region). A selection of those photos can be found in Historical Images.

 

Erich Holm von Prosch (standing in the middle) crossing the Tigris in Hasankeyf (Hisn Kayfa).