Lalla Essaydi: redefining the orientalist harem

Redefining the image of Arab women: The triptych, from Moroccan photographer Lalla Essaydi in her series titled ‘Harem,’ makes a powerful statement about women and their relationship with Arab culture, in an aim to disrupt orientalist stereotypes, according to Kwan Fong Gallery. The photograph draws from historic orientalist paintings such as Frank Dicksee’s Leila, or Rudolf Ernst’s Harem Girls: paintings known to fetishize women. Essaydi transforms the image, giving it a more modern look and reappropriating the notion of the harem, as a space designated strictly for women.