 Femme
turque, by Zangaki.
Through her transparent veil, a purported "Turkish lady" gazes
coyly past the camera. Studio portraits were often carefully staged, the
models wearing an assortment of their own clothes combined with costumes
and props belonging to the photographer. In one instance, the Khedive
Ismail gave the Viennese painter Carl Huber the old Musaffir Khan palace
in Cairo as a studio. Huber and his friend then proceeded to employ female
Egyptian street vendors as models. Their special interest was creating
photographs that gave life to Western harem fantasies, and one of Huber's
guests noted that the women soon ran about the palace dressing and behaving
just like a fancier of the Arabian Nights would wish. All of the surviving
studio portraits by Zangaki are considerably more tame.
Signed at lower left "Zangaki"; caption at lower right "Nr.
805 Femme turque."
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