Gezicht op de moskee en het graf van Kaït Bey (Qaytbay) in Caïro c. 1870 - 1898

This albumen print captures the Mosque-Mausoleum of Qaytbay in Cairo, produced by Maison Bonfils. The Bonfils family, French photographers, operated primarily in the Middle East during the late 19th century, a period marked by intense European Orientalism. The firm produced thousands of photographs, catering to Western desires for images of the ‘exotic’ Orient. This photograph, with its soft focus on the intricate details of Islamic architecture, subtly reinforces the power dynamics between the colonizer and the colonized. It invites a Western gaze upon a culture, transforming the mausoleum into a mere object of aesthetic consumption. What is lost in this image, however, are the socio-political complexities of Cairo, and the lived experiences of its inhabitants during this transformative period. By viewing this photograph through a contemporary lens, we can consider how historical images contribute to the ongoing construction and negotiation of cultural identities.