Lalla Essaydi’s aim was to return to her childhood home in Morocco and understand the woman she has become today by unfolding the culture and space of her childhood. She began a project to photograph these physical spaces before they were lost, and to see the role they played in shaping the metaphorical space of her childhood.
The text, culled from personal journals, chronicles the artists reflections on memory, identity, and personal narrative, she renders it deliberately illegible, yielding little information. But writing itself is an act of rebellion, she explains, because calligraphic writing was historically inaccessible to woman. Writing, then, serves as a delicate act of defiance. It provides a voice, upsetting the silence of confinement and the limitations woman face. Woman in the photographs reside harems, traditionally their ‘proper’ place. Essaydi’s excessive use of text. Fabric and architectural ornamentation pushes the imagery from idealised and alluring toward the absurd and surreal, drawing attention to popular misconceptions and expectations. “My photograph grew out of the need i felt to document actual spaces, especially those of my childhood.” -Lalla Essaydi.
Essaydi’s personal narrative and critical reflection is on her experience as a liberal Moroccan, Arab, African, and Muslim woman living across cultures. She sees her work as “intersecting with the presence and absence of boundaries-of history, gender, architecture, and culture- that mark spaces of possibility and limitations. This is my story as well.”
The text, culled from personal journals, chronicles the artists reflections on memory, identity, and personal narrative, she renders it deliberately illegible, yielding little information. But writing itself is an act of rebellion, she explains, because calligraphic writing was historically inaccessible to woman. Writing, then, serves as a delicate act of defiance. It provides a voice, upsetting the silence of confinement and the limitations woman face. Woman in the photographs reside harems, traditionally their ‘proper’ place. Essaydi’s excessive use of text. Fabric and architectural ornamentation pushes the imagery from idealised and alluring toward the absurd and surreal, drawing attention to popular misconceptions and expectations. “My photograph grew out of the need i felt to document actual spaces, especially those of my childhood.” -Lalla Essaydi.
Essaydi’s personal narrative and critical reflection is on her experience as a liberal Moroccan, Arab, African, and Muslim woman living across cultures. She sees her work as “intersecting with the presence and absence of boundaries-of history, gender, architecture, and culture- that mark spaces of possibility and limitations. This is my story as well.”
Lalla Essaydi, explores the image of women in Islamic society. The follwoing images are from her very cool series entitled Harem in which her subjects are wrapped in robes and henna which echo the decorative Arabic tiles and patterns that wall the incredible interiors. She explores issues surrounding the role of women in Arab culture and their representation in the western European artistic tradition. Her large-scale photographs are based on nineteenth-century Orientalist paintings, but work to subvert those stereotyped and sexualized representations. Aside from their timely and provocative subject matter, Essaydi’s photographs are technically impressive.
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Behind each of her images is weeks of preparation, as the text is composed, the fabrics are dyed to match the setting in which they will appear, and the architectural backdrops are carefully constructed. The entire field of the almost life-size photographs appears in sharp focus, the result of her use of a large-format camera and traditional film. Essaydi explains "The physical harem is the dangerous frontier where sacred law and pleasure collide. This is not the harem of the Western Orientalist imagination, an anxiety-free place of euphoria and the absence of constraints, where the word “harem” has lost its dangerous edge. My harem is based on the historical reality; rather then the artistic images of the West – an idyllic, lustful dream of sexually available women, uninhibited by the moral constraints of 19th Century Europe.” |
Here are two of my responses created using some of my best images from the photo-shoot in the Victoria & Albert museum, I used Photoshop for this final outcome. I ensured my model was from an Arabic heritage to be able to represent Middle Eastern women’s identity, which this strengthened the image to look more accurate, and for her to fit in the scene created. To reach this outcome I have used the same Islamic pattern used on the Harem onto the Islamic dressing (abaya) as if the ceramic wall is projected onto her patterned abaya. A sense of both culture and identity is reflected within my work, it a way in which culture and you identity can be expressed and may have multiple meanings. For example Essaydi uses this in which to represent the Arabian women and how they are not oppressed when coming to reveling who they are confidently by wearing something that simply represents something to do with them such as ethnicity or faith.
I think that overlaying the layer of the harem onto the abaya via Photoshop has worked effectively because of the opacity that has been decreased so that you are still able to tell that it is an Islamic dressing she is wearing. Another way I could achieve this is through printing the pattern out onto transparency paper and over laying it only on the sections I want such as the abaya. Another aspect that has made my work successful and effective was the repeated pattern of the harem that I prudently duplicated to extend the shape of harem and add the vivid blue and for it to show that the location wasn’t a museum but a location in Morocco where the Harems are frequently found.
Her photographs are expressions of her own personal history but can also be taken as reflections on the life of Arab woman in general. Although she opposes to be the representative of all Arab woman due to the range of traditions and laws among the different Arabs nations to presume to speak for everyone. Essaydi captures spaces from her childhood, annotating them with text embedded in the images. Using a self-described painting process, she inscribes woman with flowing script using natural henna dye in place of ink, substituting cloth or skin for paper.
The patterns that are visible are either the arabic text in henna or the islamic patterns, and the big bold brown text that is placed over the forground of words makes it easier to stand out and although the small text is difficult to read the bigger font is easier to read. one of the aspects that i find really interesting in Essaydi.
The patterns that are visible are either the arabic text in henna or the islamic patterns, and the big bold brown text that is placed over the forground of words makes it easier to stand out and although the small text is difficult to read the bigger font is easier to read. one of the aspects that i find really interesting in Essaydi.
Here is a number of responses that I have created using photoshop. the following photoshoot for the images where you can find similar responses, can be found here. It took a while for me to prepare for this photoshoot as I wanted it to contribute to my final pieces so i wanted it to stand out and be created on the highest of my abilities and quility. I tried to incorporate many ideas and influneces from other photographers and my own work into one photoshoot. As Lalla Essaydi being one of the most influential photographers in my theme Culture and Identity, I incorporated her inspiration the most. The way in which i planned this photoshoot is by thinking what has been sucessful, what hasnt and what i will like to try. Dvevloping from my response to Lalla Essaydi's work I didnt want to use photoshop to edit patterns or words on to the body but rather project it on. Therefore, I figured that the best location for me to do the photoshoot was in a room that had a white background, space and a place my model felt comfortable modelling in. Since I wanted to be projecting arabic words and islmaic patterns i wanted my model to have the Arabic culture and social background and the islamic faith. Using a model that was a arab was crucial because they would help in making the image look so real and they would fit in very well. Hence why i wanted my model to feel comfortable in the environment that she was in so that her character or personailty would shine through the images too by her facial expressions, body language, and positiong.
Lalla Essaydi uses props with in her image so i got some islamic writing and and some personal writing from my model of her veiws as a Muslim Arab and what shapes her identity. Through using significnt text, I hope to get my message very clear to my audience. I used the sublimation printer to get the text on to white fabric for my model to either wear or wrap herself around it. I experimented by printing a couple out and ensuring that the text size, material size was appropriate for my photoshoot, so i printed some in big and som in a smaller size. My aim for the photoshoot is for the arabic text to completely dominate the space, model, walls, body literally everything. I also used other props such as a mabkhara (incense burner) that is something siginificant as an object to women in arabic countries and as seen in Essaydi's work, she uses that as a prop too.
During the photoshoot, i got my model to wear something white and show some skin because i wanted the effect of the projecter to be projecting words on to her bare skin as well as her clothes and also her wrapping herself with a big white peice of material. I chose to do this because it shows how she is confidentl posing with her own identit being revealed and when she is fully covered, the way in which she chooses to represnt herself. Does it neccessarily mean that when she is covering herself her identity has vanished completely?
Lalla Essaydi uses props with in her image so i got some islamic writing and and some personal writing from my model of her veiws as a Muslim Arab and what shapes her identity. Through using significnt text, I hope to get my message very clear to my audience. I used the sublimation printer to get the text on to white fabric for my model to either wear or wrap herself around it. I experimented by printing a couple out and ensuring that the text size, material size was appropriate for my photoshoot, so i printed some in big and som in a smaller size. My aim for the photoshoot is for the arabic text to completely dominate the space, model, walls, body literally everything. I also used other props such as a mabkhara (incense burner) that is something siginificant as an object to women in arabic countries and as seen in Essaydi's work, she uses that as a prop too.
During the photoshoot, i got my model to wear something white and show some skin because i wanted the effect of the projecter to be projecting words on to her bare skin as well as her clothes and also her wrapping herself with a big white peice of material. I chose to do this because it shows how she is confidentl posing with her own identit being revealed and when she is fully covered, the way in which she chooses to represnt herself. Does it neccessarily mean that when she is covering herself her identity has vanished completely?