Handsome cabinet card by Jean Geiser: young man, Kabyle, albumen photo c. 1880

His simple cloth tunic and hood speak to traditional Berber dress, while his direct stare challenges colonial photographic conventions of the era. The background has been inked in as a solid field, and upon close inspection, traces of retouching are visible—common practices in 19th-century portrait photography that enhanced the subject’s presence against the stark backdrop.