Two disturbing nudes - 10/04/25

While photographers Lehnert and Landrock are best known for their orientalist photographs of north African 'life', possibly less known (though I'm no expert) are these two nudes of Tunisian women, taken in 1909 and 1904 respectively (see below).

On the left are depicted two girls, who cannot be through their teenage years. The image plays into the trope of young girls acting intimately with one another: the model on the right (hand in hair; lighter complexion) keeps an unnotable downward gaze and neutral expression, but the other, on whose lap she sits, looks upset. Though I know little of the specifics of this picture, I would struggle to believe that these poor girls sat and posed for a reason other than money. The second photograph, taken in 1904, shows something more explicitly disgusting: a Tunisian woman bound at her hands, calves, ankles and chest, with violence furthered by her having been turned to face the wall. To my mind this is a fantasised depiction of rape – specifically of indigenous people by the whites who captured and bought such images.
It may be that we witness here an alternative to the 'jewel of the east' – a more overtly racist depiction of the native woman. A contrast between the two is in the first image; the girl on the left is distressed, darker, ethnically decorated and to the white man an example of the ignorant, suffering Arab; on her lap is something much more sensuous, who is to be desired. Ultimately, the colonist desires that either be in ropes.