4to. 240 pp, Introduction by Youssef Rakha, black and white photographic plates to include frontispiece, list of Studios at the end, published by Zeitouna, Cairo, 2021.

Synopsis

From the second half of the nineteenth century until World War II, Egyptian photographic portraits tell a remarkable story, their popularity and art driven by the burgeoning presence of the photo studio across the country, in every town and city. It is a story of the democratisation of the image, with the photos spreading from royalty to an ever wider circle of subjects. In the subjects of these photos, we glimpse the wider story of female liberation, of modernisation, and nationalism. But above all, the story of these images and the studios that created them conjures up a world that was to disappear forever. It is a far more secular and cosmopolitan world, one that made room not only for posing but also for looking. In the age of the selfie, the power of these faces emerging from the fog of time cannot be overstated. The work includes 81 photographic studios plus many unknown, a plethora of races serving Egypt in a time of change, a time of plenty.