Her + Him Van Leo

Hiya wa houa Van Leo

This portrait of famed Armenian-Egyptian studio photographer Van Leo, whose career spanned some 50 years, is also a reflection on transformations in the practice of photography, from hand-developing to digital manipulation. As Zaatari puts it, "Van Leo used photography to display multiple images of himself, assuming different identities. At a time when nationalism was rising in Egypt, Van Leo was plotting, encouraging, and promoting multiple subjectivities.”