This video projection, composed from images found in the Arab Image Foundation archives, incorporates military group portraits from Iraq and Egypt produced between the years of 1920 and 1940. In depicting specific moments in history, the images featured here also shed light on larger cultural, social, and political issues. Some of the photographs are undated; others are anonymous—but in any case, such group portraits, including those of the graduating classes from the Baghdad and Cairo Police Academies seen here, would surely have been shot by professional photographers. Seen one after another in a continuous loop, the images depict solemn men either seated or standing row upon row, recalling the official class portraits that so many of us posed for every year.

Also on view in nearby cases are original photographs that once belonged to Zainab Shalabi, which were discovered in a Cairo flea market and purchased in 2001 by the Arab Image Foundation. From the photos, we learn that Shalabi worked as a nurse in various Egyptian institutions throughout her career.
 

Cairo Police Academy, 1927, from video installation of military group portraits. DVD, 6-minute loop. © Arab Image Foundation, W. Raad, A. Zaatari