Zouave Storyteller (Le recit) 1857

This photograph, *Zouave Storyteller*, was made by Gustave Le Gray. Though the exact date is unknown, it was probably made in the late 1850s. The photograph depicts a group of French soldiers, Zouaves, listening to a storyteller in a camp setting. Le Gray was a key figure in the development of photography in France. This image is interesting for how it captures French colonial power in Algeria. The Zouaves were a light infantry unit, originally composed of Algerian soldiers, but later integrated into the French army. Le Gray’s work is a study in French colonial expansion, a cultural project as much as a military one. What is the relationship between the photographer and his subjects? The power dynamics of colonialism are inescapable. Art historians can use military records, colonial archives, and other period photographs to understand how this image functioned in its own time, and what it might mean to us today.