{"id":18923,"date":"2026-07-10T03:39:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T03:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diptykmag.com\/youssef-nabil-orientalism-in-reverse\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T09:21:52","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T09:21:52","slug":"youssef-nabil-orientalism-in-reverse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.diptykmag.com\/en\/youssef-nabil-orientalism-in-reverse\/","title":{"rendered":"Youssef Nabil: Orientalism in Reverse"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"18923\" class=\"elementor elementor-18923 elementor-15614\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-8538d1b e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"8538d1b\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-7210a3f elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"7210a3f\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><b>By taking over the Orsay Museum\u2019s Orientalist galleries, Youssef Nabil does much more than simply exhibit his photographs: he shifts the viewer\u2019s perspective. Blending cinematic nostalgia, memories of exile, and the subversion of stereotypes, his work both reimagines and deconstructs the history of a fantasized Orient. <\/b><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By Rym Abouker<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-3ce03ff elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"3ce03ff\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1500\" height=\"1001\" src=\"https:\/\/www.diptykmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/01.-Youssef-Nabil-devant-Ramses-dans-son-harem-de-Jean-Lecomte-du-Nouy.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full wp-image-18924\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.diptykmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/01.-Youssef-Nabil-devant-Ramses-dans-son-harem-de-Jean-Lecomte-du-Nouy.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/www.diptykmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/01.-Youssef-Nabil-devant-Ramses-dans-son-harem-de-Jean-Lecomte-du-Nouy-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.diptykmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/01.-Youssef-Nabil-devant-Ramses-dans-son-harem-de-Jean-Lecomte-du-Nouy-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.diptykmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/01.-Youssef-Nabil-devant-Ramses-dans-son-harem-de-Jean-Lecomte-du-Nouy-768x513.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-ec7ce6e elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"ec7ce6e\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">Youssef Nabil as <i>Ramses in<\/i> Jean Lecomte du Nou\u00ff\u2019s <i>*His Harem*<\/i> \u00a9 Photo: Alex Kostromin<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-d44498c elementor-widget elementor-widget-spacer\" data-id=\"d44498c\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"spacer.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-spacer\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-spacer-inner\"><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-215c8b0 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"215c8b0\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s a wonderful story: in 1992, Youssef Nabil discovered the Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay and emerged from it a changed man. Some thirty years later, the Egyptian photographer is the first contemporary artist invited to take over the museum\u2019s Orientalist galleries, now renamed \u201cArtists in North Africa .\u201d His works engage in a dialogue with the Symbolist heart of the collection: Puvis de Chavannes, Odilon Redon\u2026 A cycle that deserves to be interpreted in two ways.   <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For Youssef Nabil, communicating through images is, above all, a matter of vital importance. When he was born in Cairo in 1972, the golden age of Egyptian cinema was already in decline. A film buff and devoted fan of those old black-and-white movies he watched after school, he fell in love with actors who had already passed away. This first awareness of death had a lasting impact on his relationship with images: \u201cJ   <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I decided that I would make photography my career and that I would photograph the people I love before I die and before they die.<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u201d From cinema, he drew inspiration from poses, theatricality, and an eclectic eroticism. In 1991, a storefront in downtown Cairo definitively shaped his artistic practice: the studio of Van Leo, the last defender of glamorous black-and-white portraiture in a Cairo that had embraced color. Nabil inherited this vision: to sublimate, to turn the subject into a star, and to transcend their identity. Technically, he also carries on the tradition of manual colorization from Egyptian studios: his silver gelatin prints are painted with watercolors, enhanced with pencil, and retouched with a brush. Each image is a unique print that makes no claim to documentary objectivity, imbued with a faded, melancholic atmosphere, somewhere between memory and fiction\u2014a time that never quite existed.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-b0489ee elementor-widget elementor-widget-spacer\" data-id=\"b0489ee\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"spacer.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-spacer\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-spacer-inner\"><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-de6017d elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"de6017d\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1500\" height=\"2255\" src=\"https:\/\/www.diptykmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/13.-Youssef-Nabil-No-one-knows-but-the-Sky-2019.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full wp-image-18926\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.diptykmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/13.-Youssef-Nabil-No-one-knows-but-the-Sky-2019.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/www.diptykmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/13.-Youssef-Nabil-No-one-knows-but-the-Sky-2019-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.diptykmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/13.-Youssef-Nabil-No-one-knows-but-the-Sky-2019-681x1024.jpg 681w, https:\/\/www.diptykmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/13.-Youssef-Nabil-No-one-knows-but-the-Sky-2019-768x1155.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.diptykmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/13.-Youssef-Nabil-No-one-knows-but-the-Sky-2019-1022x1536.jpg 1022w, https:\/\/www.diptykmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/13.-Youssef-Nabil-No-one-knows-but-the-Sky-2019-1362x2048.jpg 1362w, https:\/\/www.diptykmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/13.-Youssef-Nabil-No-one-knows-but-the-Sky-2019-300x451.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-7e965e5 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"7e965e5\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">Youssef Nabil, <i>*No one knows but the sky*<\/i>, 2019, hand-colored silver gelatin print, 115 x 75 cm. Private collection \u00a9 Youssef Nabil <\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-9774fd6 elementor-widget elementor-widget-spacer\" data-id=\"9774fd6\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"spacer.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-spacer\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-spacer-inner\"><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-be66950 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"be66950\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><b>Creating Images as Memories<\/b><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Youssef Nabil left Egypt in 2003. For him, exile functions as an aesthetic condition: viewing his country from a distance means mentally reconstructing it and mythologizing it. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">*Self-portrait with Roots* <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(2008), in which he photographs himself nestled among enormous roots in Los Angeles, expresses exactly that: what remains rooted when the body departs. This is the act Nabil performs with every colorization, with every reenacted scene: creating images-as-memories for what the official archive has failed to preserve.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Her portraits function as counter-narratives: Ghada Amer, known for her pornographic works, appears veiled; Natacha Atlas poses like a smoking odalisque with a hookah. These choices play with clich\u00e9s about the Arab world and subvert them. The closed or averted gaze removes the model from any direct confrontation; she becomes less of a psychological subject and more of a memory-evoking apparition. Nabil explores the enduring power of stereotypes, as well as their paradoxically alluring dimension, without claiming to escape them entirely. He reveals their complexity by working from within.    <\/span><\/p><p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Two Djellabas<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (2007) takes this gesture a step further. The rolled-up djellaba, stripped of its function, becomes an image: two panels of fabric, one black, the other white, frame four hairy thighs intertwined on a pink floral couch, the hose of a hookah slithering like a snake into the frame. The tight cropping strips the bodies of all identifying features: face, hands, torso. Gender assignment is suspended, and the off-screen space is saturated with possibilities. The deepest subversion lies not in scandal, but in the banality of a scene that we have long refused to depict. <\/span> <i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I Saved My Belly Dancer <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(2015) completes this reversal: opposite the passive, melancholic man, the dancer stands upright and active; she is the one in control. In the Orientalist tradition, the dancer is offered up to the male gaze. Here, she is the one who lifts the man up.<\/span> <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-5ffaf6d elementor-widget elementor-widget-spacer\" data-id=\"5ffaf6d\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"spacer.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-spacer\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-spacer-inner\"><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-cea9883 elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"cea9883\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1500\" height=\"2235\" src=\"https:\/\/www.diptykmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/09.-Youssef-Nabil-Self-portrait-with-Roots-Los-Angeles-2008.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full wp-image-18925\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.diptykmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/09.-Youssef-Nabil-Self-portrait-with-Roots-Los-Angeles-2008.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/www.diptykmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/09.-Youssef-Nabil-Self-portrait-with-Roots-Los-Angeles-2008-201x300.jpg 201w, https:\/\/www.diptykmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/09.-Youssef-Nabil-Self-portrait-with-Roots-Los-Angeles-2008-687x1024.jpg 687w, https:\/\/www.diptykmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/09.-Youssef-Nabil-Self-portrait-with-Roots-Los-Angeles-2008-768x1144.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.diptykmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/09.-Youssef-Nabil-Self-portrait-with-Roots-Los-Angeles-2008-1031x1536.jpg 1031w, https:\/\/www.diptykmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/09.-Youssef-Nabil-Self-portrait-with-Roots-Los-Angeles-2008-1374x2048.jpg 1374w, https:\/\/www.diptykmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/09.-Youssef-Nabil-Self-portrait-with-Roots-Los-Angeles-2008-300x447.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-f79e60c elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"f79e60c\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">Youssef Nabil, <i>*Self-portrait with Roots*<\/i>, Los Angeles, 2008, hand-colored silver gelatin print, printed in 2014, 115x75 cm.\nPinault Collection \u00a9 Youssef Nabil<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-44e574a elementor-widget elementor-widget-spacer\" data-id=\"44e574a\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"spacer.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-spacer\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-spacer-inner\"><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-d327f03 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"d327f03\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><b>What a difference it makes to be in Orsay<\/b><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Featuring an Egyptian artist in these galleries represents a powerful symbolic reversal: where these walls have long legitimized the Western view of the East, they now welcome a perspective from within. Nabil does not shy away from this. In the exhibition \u201cOrsay as Seen by Youssef Nabil,\u201d he comments on a painting by Alexandre Cabanel: \u201c <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This painting draws on a dark episode from biblical mythology, which the painter sets here in an imaginary Orient to justify his depiction of the sensuality of the reclining nude. <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d He adds: \u201c <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In my works, women are portrayed as confident, proud, and liberated. <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d The third gallery brings this dialogue to life by placing Natacha Atlas, Cairo alongside a painting by L\u00e9opold de Moulignon: the submissive odalisque facing Natacha, who is smoking a hookah.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For Nabil, the dream functions as both an aesthetic force and a survival strategy: it suspends the narrative in a floating, melancholic, almost unreal temporality. But at the Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay, in the very rooms where Orientalism was legitimized as great Western art, this dream takes on a different character. It no longer resists from the margins: it is embraced, curated, institutionalized. Is this the victory of a postcolonial artist who subverts the institution\u2019s codes within its own walls? Or is it confirmation that the West tolerates only what it has always wanted to see in the East: beauty, dreams\u2014nothing that causes pain?<br\/><br\/>This translation was generated using AI. For the original text, please see the French version of this article.    <\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-ba58905 elementor-widget elementor-widget-spacer\" data-id=\"ba58905\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"spacer.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-spacer\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-spacer-inner\"><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-6daba90 elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"6daba90\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1500\" height=\"2219\" src=\"https:\/\/www.diptykmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/18.-Youssef-Nabil-Susan-Sarandon-New-York-2025.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full wp-image-18927\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.diptykmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/18.-Youssef-Nabil-Susan-Sarandon-New-York-2025.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/www.diptykmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/18.-Youssef-Nabil-Susan-Sarandon-New-York-2025-203x300.jpg 203w, https:\/\/www.diptykmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/18.-Youssef-Nabil-Susan-Sarandon-New-York-2025-692x1024.jpg 692w, https:\/\/www.diptykmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/18.-Youssef-Nabil-Susan-Sarandon-New-York-2025-768x1136.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.diptykmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/18.-Youssef-Nabil-Susan-Sarandon-New-York-2025-1038x1536.jpg 1038w, https:\/\/www.diptykmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/18.-Youssef-Nabil-Susan-Sarandon-New-York-2025-1384x2048.jpg 1384w, https:\/\/www.diptykmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/18.-Youssef-Nabil-Susan-Sarandon-New-York-2025-300x444.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-2cf2bf4 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"2cf2bf4\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">Youssef Nabil, <i>Susan Sarandon<\/i>, New York, 2025. Hand-colored silver print, 39 x 26 cm. Private collection \u00a9 Youssef Nabil  <\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By taking over the Orsay Museum\u2019s Orientalist galleries, Youssef Nabil does much more than simply exhibit his photographs: he shifts the viewer\u2019s perspective. Blending cinematic nostalgia, memories of exile, and the subversion of stereotypes, his work both reimagines and deconstructs the history of a fantasized Orient. By Rym Abouker Youssef Nabil as Ramses in Jean [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18924,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1602],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-critical-journal"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Youssef Nabil: Orientalism in Reverse &#8212; Diptykmag<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.diptykmag.com\/en\/youssef-nabil-orientalism-in-reverse\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Youssef Nabil: Orientalism in Reverse &#8212; Diptykmag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By taking over the Orsay Museum\u2019s Orientalist galleries, Youssef Nabil does much more than simply exhibit his photographs: he shifts the viewer\u2019s perspective. Blending cinematic nostalgia, memories of exile, and the subversion of stereotypes, his work both reimagines and deconstructs the history of a fantasized Orient. 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