Through tailoring imagery, it is possible to construct realities where identity can form and narrative can be given shape. During the early 20th century, the Egyptian populace was in pursuit of reforming its understanding of social norms to realize a national culture that was built, in part, upon heteronormative ideals. (1) The domestic cinema industry, a booming economic sector during this period, had become an integral mechanism to subtly espouse these revisions. (2)  

Yet, despite this cultural orchestration, Armenian photographer Van Leo explored the spectrum of gender ideals on his own terms in his Cairo studio for hours each day, producing a trove of self-portraiture that sat in quiet opposition to the imagery that was wholesaled by the cinema and the nation’s reformists to its populace. (3) 

Endowed with a wardrobe of costumes amassed during his professional practice as the preeminent photographer of the nation’s theatrical talent, Van Leo would regularly fashion himself as a vast array of characters — bound not by contemporary norms but by the costumes available to him. (4) Using own body as putty, Van Leo subverted norms and proposed an alternative voice in the discourse of contemporary gender ideals. 

The hand of the Van Leo was ever-present in his self-portraiture practice. In Self-portrait with Camera, the viewer is invited to see the camera as an object of consideration alongside the figure featured in the portrait. (5) By acknowledging its presence, the viewer was reminded of the camera’s role in the construction of the reality on view and how it is possible to shape discourse.  

Once reminding the viewer of this dynamic, Van Leo teases with their perception of constructed realities by positioning himself behind frosted glass to demonstrate the murkiness of genuine and authentic representation in the realm of image production. (6) 

Endnotes

1. Thadeus Dowad, “Mosaic with Missing Parts: Art & ‘Homosexuality’ in the Modern Middle East & Northern Africa,” in The First Homosexuals: The Birth of a New Identity, 1869-1939, ed. Jonathan Katz and Johnny Willis (Monacelli, 2025), 306 
2. ibid., 313 
3. ibid., 313  
4. Negar Azimi, “Who Was Van Leo?,” aperture, Fall 2017, 64 
5. Van Leo, Self-portrait with camera, c. 1940, photograph, The Rare Books and Special Collections Library at The American University in Cairo 
6. Van Leo, Self-portrait, c. 1940, photograph, The Rare Books and Special Collections Library at The American University in Cairo 

Luca Lotruglio is an educator at Wrightwood 659 and an arts worker in Chicago. They have curated exhibitions in Seattle, Chicago, and Bern, Switzerland. Their interests include third places, American subcultures, and how algorithmic social media platforms influence offline behavior.