In his landmark book, Orientalism, the late scholar Edward Said wrote of “exteriority,” a disconnect between the traveler’s fantasies and reality. Reading the travelogues of French writers, Said once explained that he found “representations of the Orient had very little to do with what I knew about my own background in life.”
From Bullet, by Lalla Essaydi.
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From Harem Revisited, by Lalla Essaydi.
Critics decry a new sort of Orientalism in the final images, which are breathtakingly lush, even editorial. But Essaydi sees the efforts of Gérôme and his colleagues as a response to the authentic beauty of North Africa. She says she hopes to perform a delicate balance in their wake: capturing this beauty without exploiting it. “Everything is planned carefully,” she says, to the question of how visual impact determines her choices. “I won’t include anything beautiful for mere aesthetic.”
