Lehnert & Landrock were a German-Bohemian photography duo. Their hand-tinted photographs featured Egyptian and Tunisian monuments and, more controversially, eroticized images of Arab women posed within harem scenes. Lehnert & Landrock’s photographs attempted to embody a romanticized vision of the Arab world held by Europe, intetended to titillate rather than serve as a true document of everyday life in the region. The artists were Rudolf Franz Lehnert, born on July 13, 1878 in Velká Úpa, Bohemia, and Ernst Heinrich Landrock, born on August 4, 1878 in Reinsdorf, Germany. Upon returning from a trip to North Africa, Lehnert met Landrock in Switzerland and the two decided to go into business together. Lehnert acted as the photographer and Landrock organized the expeditions, photolab, and marketing of postcards, posters, and prints. They lived both in Tunis and Cairo but periodically made trips back to Europe throughout their lives. Today, their works can be found in the collections of the Penn Museum Archives in Philadelphia, the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne, and the San Francisco State University Museum, among others. Lehnert died on January 16, 1948 in Reydef, Tunisia, and Landrock died on April 30, 1966 in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland.
Detailed Description:
Item Number: 197
Photo: Ouled Nail couple from Algeria
Date of original photograph: 1904
Type: Photo printed on high-quality matt photograph paper
Size: A4