LALLA ESSAYDI (b.1956)

Essaydi explores the complexities of Arab female identity, covering her subjects, their clothing and surroundings with auto-biographical, yet incomplete text. Essaydi states: 'I am going beyond simple critique to a more active, even subversive, engagement with cultural patterns to convey my own experience as an Arab woman caught somewhere between past and present, as well as between "East" and "West."'

Morrocan-born Essaydi received her MFA from Tufts University, Boston. She now lives and works in New York City.