Straatgezicht in Caïro before 1914

Editor: Here we have "A Street View in Cairo," a print, likely a photograph, dating back to before 1914, housed in the Rijksmuseum. What strikes me immediately is the contrast: the intricate, almost precarious-looking architecture alongside the ordinary, everyday street life unfolding below. What draws your eye in this piece? Curator: That's a great observation! For me, it's like peering into a forgotten world, isn't it? A world filtered through a lens of Orientalism, perhaps. Notice how the photographer meticulously captured the light, the play of shadows creating these very intriguing geometrical shapes. Makes you wonder about the life lived in those buildings, the secrets held within those balconies... it's all so wonderfully romantic, or am I just dreaming? Editor: I think that's a little romanticizing. But the architecture *is* striking! All the wooden structures... What kind of stories do you think they'd tell? Curator: I think each cantilevered balcony could whisper a different story of the people inside. Remember, photography was still finding its voice then; this image presents a constructed vision of "the Orient" for a European audience, both romantic and detached. You have to ask who it serves to imagine the people within in a specific way. Editor: So it’s not *just* a record. Curator: Exactly! It is about staging a world, more so than capturing reality as it exists, without any kind of creative choice making. The perspective draws you in. But perhaps it also keeps you… at a distance. What do *you* think it feels like to be there? Editor: Well, considering everything... Uncomfortable? I feel like I need to keep thinking about what it's like to be observed in this very constructed view. I really didn't notice any of this to begin with! Curator: It is beautiful to begin thinking this way. Now, what could we do to deconstruct all of that?