Orientalism Photo Exhibit 

In an era of great racism, in a mind space where muslim religion and arabic culture mingled, I wanted to portray the stereotypes vehiculated, not of terrorist warriors but of the female identity in the cultures designated. Colonisation and a misguided idea of female subordination are topics that can't be forgotten. The exhibit was created in response to a recent trip to Istanbul where I myself felt exoticized under the scrutiny of local's gaze and photo cameras. The models of the photo project are Caucasian, to create a dissonance between the "characters" of the picture, and the real identity of the models.
It aims to observe the phenomenon of exotization, not to solve it.

Orientalism can be sourced as a photographic and painting movement that started from the 19th century. Officially launched by Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguere for the sake of Egyptian monuments' archival, it was a first step in the use of the new invention of photography when traveling abroad. It first appears as a European gaze on "exotic" lands, and was at the same time used by the locals of those traveled countries as a political tool for regal promotion and as a touristic merchandise to sell.