Women’s Worlds

Here is another one:
http://www.qajarwomen.org/en/items/1261A215.html

Do we know who took the photographs? Or in which context they were distributed? It seems like this is not only about wearing men's clothes, but also about wearing Western style men's clothes. The group photograph with the two men, the dressed woman and the boy, almost looks like they are playing/imitating drunk/drinking Westerners. The photos make very different impressions. Some look like the woman enjoys playing this role (the Brooklyn photo even has a dandyesque feel to it with the cane and the hat), others give completely the opposite impression. For example the photo that is titled 'khanom', with the sad-looking person on it, which is also an exception to the Western clothing style of the others. It might just be this group of images, but it looks like group portraits dressed-up are much more common than portraits of a single person. I also wonder at what time some of these images were captioned as 'prostitutes', if this was still in the Qajar era or later, and in how far the original intention of taking the photo and the final use diverge from each other.

Here is a wonderful comparison to the Brooklyn-photo, which also shows, as Azadeh mentioned in class, that the clothing might not necessarily have to be regarded as Western (or not only), but also as upper class in this context: http://www.worldisround.com/articles/255726/photo130.html

what is interesting to think about is how each is named differently and has a different visual context. so the one Azadeh added is described as دسته ای از مطربها.
the other ones from top to bottom: دو زن روسپی -- پوشاک و آرایش آنها
 چهره و پوشاک دو زن روسپی و یک مرد
دختربچه های دربار ولیعهد
زنی با لباس مردانه در دوره قاجار -- و روی عکس نوشته خانم
 پیشخدمتهای ولیعهد با دختربچه های دربار موقع صرف نوشابه
By the way: I haven't seen the expression دختر بچه used in this sense until this late Qajar period; I suspect it was coined after the more common expressions, such as غلام بچه; if that proves to be the case, then presumably the dressing up was a mimicry of the same position and the presumption of particular figures of desirability.

Regarding our discussion on husband-and-wife images, here I attach some examples from the archive: http://www.qajarwomen.org/en/items/908A2.html
http://www.qajarwomen.org/en/items/1025A129.html
http://www.qajarwomen.org/en/items/1025A135.html
http://www.qajarwomen.org/en/items/1144A95.html

There is also this photo, which is in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum: http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/161460/Looks_Like_a_Girl!_Mohterem___One_of_274_Vintage_Photographs/set/?referring-q=qajar+drag+Leona+Soudavar+in+memory+of+Ahmad+Soudavar

http://www.qajarwomen.org/en/items/1261A113.html

I found this photograph on a weblog. This is taken in Budapest around 1920 and although it's not depicting Iranians, but the same cross dressing can be seen here. http://lildormy.tumblr.com/post/60620616130/vintagegal-wedding-photo-budapest-c-1920

http://lildormy.tumblr.com/post/60620616130/vintagegal-wedding-photo-budapest-c-1920