'Somali Woman'. Photographer: Unknown [‎50b] (1/1)

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Genre/Subject Matter:

This full-length seated studio portrait of a young Somali woman is intended to demonstrate an ethnic or class ‘type’. In particular, this image is intended to illustrate the habits of dress as described previously by Frederick Mercer Hunter (p. 45). Hunter describes these as follows:

‘The women wear a single garment like that of the men, but it is put on differently, being fastened round the waist like a petticoat, with a number of folds behind; one end is then brought up across the left or right shoulder, and a lappet is left, which can be brought over the head like a hood. The breeze is apt to discompose this drapery, and girls before marriage wear a piece of string round the waist to prevent the upper portion of their robe from becoming indecorous. Married women are not so particular. The petticoat portion is open in front, and very frequently the leg is exposed far above the knee.’

Elsewhere, on page 62, Hunter describes the ‘ornaments’ worn by Somalis, however, those descriptions do not accurately reflect what is worn by the woman in this photograph, except inasmuch as she wears what are perhaps ‘Zanud’ armlets above the elbow. Her earrings are hooped and appear to be of metal, while her necklace(s) consists of three strands of varying sized beads, which may be amber, coral, metal or some other natural bead. The shortest necklace with the smallest beads is close about her neck, the next is made of evenly sized large beads also close about her neck, while the longest necklace is made of unevenly sized beads of various materials. All three strands may be suspended from her hooped earrings. She wears a turban-like twisted fabric about her head which conceals her hair entirely.

Although less overtly erotic in character, the woman is posed with one ankle exposed and seated on a patterned carpet in a fashion similar to erotic Orientalist genre paintings.

Inscriptions:

In pencil, upper left corner adjacent to print: ‘9’

Extent and format

1 albumen Method of printing photographs using an emulsion of salt and egg white (albumen). print

Physical characteristics

Dimensions:

89 x 61 mm [portrait]

Format:

1 albumen Method of printing photographs using an emulsion of salt and egg white (albumen). print pasted to backing paper and mounted between pp. 50-51

Materials:

Silver printing-out paper, albumen Method of printing photographs using an emulsion of salt and egg white (albumen). print

Condition:

The print is unevenly hand-cut, with one long crease from 1.5cm along upper edge to 5.5cm along right edge. There are a series of minor surface losses from 1.3cm to 4.3cm from lower edge along left-hand edge. A small number of dark spatter marks on the left-hand side of the image originate in printing.

Foliation:

‘9’

Process:

Albumen Method of printing photographs using an emulsion of salt and egg white (albumen). print

Written in

English in Latin script

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