Daguerreotypes, pages 15 to 31 Summary and Analysis

Photograph 1: This is the oldest picture Kapuscinski has, dating from around 1896. It shows an older soldier, the grandfather of the last Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, holding a prisoner with a chain. The prisoner is the assassin of another Shah, Shah Nasr-ed-Din. The story behind the photograph is that the men have been traveling for days to Teheran, the soldier escorting the prisoner to be executed, and they both look tired. The men depend on the kindness of strangers for lodging and a bit of food on this journey, and the soldier likes to brag about the important murderer he has captured.

The soldier demands foods from peasants at a hut he stops at, and they have nothing to give but their own food, some roots and dried locusts, which the soldier and prisoner eat greedily...