Bedouin

1880 · réf. 14537 — 1880. Albumen photograph "Biskra. Fantasia Arabe" circa 1880s-1890s depicting a group of mounted Algerian horsemen charging across the desert near Biskra during the period of French colonial rule. Approximately a dozen riders gallop across the foreground with rifles and swords raised while a Bedouin encampment scattered palms and the mountains surrounding the Biskra oasis appear in the distance. The image captures the speed and spectacle of the fantasia a traditional North African equestrian display involving coordinated riding weapons and demonstrations of martial skill. Inscribed in the negative "2090. Biskra. fantasia arabe." A photograph bearing the same title and negative number is held by the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris and attributed to J. Geiser of Algiers a prominent photographer of colonial Algeria.Approximately 7" x 9". Strong image with excellent detail in the riders encampment and surrounding landscape. An evocative visual document relevant to French colonialism in North Africa Algerian history Orientalist photography Indigenous cultural representation and nineteenth-century military and equestrian traditions. Biskra became an important destination for European travelers artists soldiers and photographers during the nineteenth century and images of its desert landscape and Indigenous population circulated widely within the visual culture of French colonial Algeria. Photographs of the fantasia were especially popular because they combined genuine regional traditions of horsemanship with the dramatic exotic imagery sought by European audiences. As a result such photographs function both as records of Algerian social and equestrian culture and as examples of the colonial and Orientalist lens through which North Africa was presented to the West.Light wear consistent with age; very good condition. unknown books