At first, this photo seems to depict the fascination of many Orientalist paintings: the Harem. A place where the Sultan retires to at night to be entertained by several concubines. In this photograph, a concubine appears to dance in ecstasy for her owner.

In actuality, this photo was staged by the Orientalist photographer, Roger Fenton, with hired models and a backdrop. Having experienced the Ottoman culture during the Crimean War, Fenton aims to perpetuate Orientalist tropes from previous paintings to conserve the Middle East's depiction.

The lack of consent or autonomy of the actual Ottoman sultans and people of the Middle East is ever-present. Distributing this 'fake' image further normalized this radically different view of the Middle East to western consumers throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries.