Portret van twee onbekende mannen in een parfumwinkel, Caïro 1888 - 1895

This is a photograph by Jean Pascal Sébah entitled ‘Portret van twee onbekende mannen in een parfumwinkel, Caïro’. While the date of its creation remains unknown, Sébah captured this image of two men in Cairo sometime between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During this period, photographic studios in the Middle East, often run by European or local entrepreneurs, catered to a growing demand for images that romanticized and exoticized the ‘Orient’. Sébah, of Syrian-Lebanese and Greek descent, occupies a complex position, one that neither fully belongs to the colonizer nor the colonized. Here, the subjects are carefully posed within the confines of their shop, surrounded by shelves filled with jars and bottles – containers of scent. They are adorned in traditional attire, turbans, and flowing robes which speak to their cultural identity, yet they remain nameless and largely anonymous. The photograph invites us to consider the power dynamics inherent in the act of representation. While seemingly benign, it perpetuates a visual narrative shaped by colonial desires and assumptions. How does the gaze of the photographer impact our understanding of these men and their world?