orientalizing

ibn tulun mosque from the gayer anderson museum
Originally uploaded by nostalgist

I've been a bit delinquent posting...we're getting ready to go. I'll try to put up a few more thoughts about Cairo and our last days here before we leave.
And yes, this is an orientalist photograph. Because one of the women who worked at the Gayer-Anderson museum took a break and stood for a few minutes in the striped shadows of the trellis, looking at the minaret of the Ibn tulun mosque. I'm not sure if it was the disorientation caused by the heat and chaos of Cairo, or the effect of all the the symmetry of the mosques and palaces, but I had a terrible time shooting straight during our whole visit. I kept taking pictures that were slanted. Even all the straight lines in this picture served to confuse rather than guide me.
I like the Manichean lines on her Burka - the striping of the black. And the breeze, of course. That's agency.
I read somewhere that there have been a disproportionate number of photographs of the Iranian - do we get to call it a revolution yet? - rebellion - featuring pretty women. I've noticed that as well. The revolution will be televised, and it will be telegenic. In the last day or two, the close-ups of women have switched to pictures taken from a distance featuring men throwing rocks, or the massive crowd scenes shot from above.
We're off to Tel Aviv.