Anonymous. Studio Shehrazade, Saida, Lebanon, 1970s. Hashem el Madani 2007

Curator: This photograph, taken in the 1970s in Saida, Lebanon, is from the Studio Shehrazade archive, preserved by Akram Zaatari. It shows two men playfully posing with a cutout of a blonde woman. Editor: The grain of the film is so present, giving the image a real grit. And look at the contrast of the men’s clothing – the textures of the tank top versus the button-up shirt. I wonder what that studio space was like. Curator: The artificiality is key—the cardboard woman becomes a symbol of Western ideals, a fantasy. The men's gestures, the flowers, it's a performance of desire, echoing broader cultural longings. Editor: Right, and the labor of the studio photographer to create this fantasy. Consider the processing, the darkroom techniques, the very materiality of creating this aspirational image for working-class clients. Curator: It's about the construction of an identity, then, through borrowed symbols and shared dreams. What does it mean to hold an idealized version of the West so close? Editor: It makes me think about the economics of desire, the accessibility of such fantasies via mass production and the studio’s own production to meet the customer's request. Curator: It’s a potent image; a window into both personal hopes and the collective imagination. Editor: Indeed, a simple photograph reveals layers of social and material complexities.