Cairo Photo Week: Van Leo Exhibition—Between Self and Other

"To place a camera before oneself is an act of confrontation. It demands vulnerability—an unflinching encounter with the lens as both witness and interrogator." Van Leo (1921–2002)

A master of studio portraiture, he spent decades turning the camera on himself, crafting self-portraits that oscillate between performance and raw introspection. These images are not merely self-representations; they are psychological excavations,  revealing the artist’s shifting identities, moods, and masks over time. This exhibition explores the duality of Van Leo’s gaze: how he saw and represented himself, and how he saw and represented others.

Divided into two interconnected acts—The Self as Subject and The Other as Reflection—the show traces the invisible threads between the portraits Van Leo made of himself and those he made of his sitters.

What emerges is a dialogue: a revelation that the way we perceive others is inevitably filtered through the prism of our selves.  At the heart of this exhibition lies a paradox: that every portrait, even the most intimate self-study, is an act of translation. We are what we see, yes but we also see according to who we are. Van Leo’s archive becomes a testament to this interplay, where the boundaries between self and other blur. By posing his self-portraits with his portraits of others, we glimpse not only the artist’s eye but the universal human quest to find oneself in the gaze of another. This exhibition is an invitation to reflect: Do we see others through ourselves?

Curated by: Mohamed Mahdy

This exhibition was made possible by the AUC Rare Books and Special Collection Library, by providing the Van Leo collection materials.

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