Leica Store SF Books
The Fold - Hoda Afshar
products.product.pickup_availability.unavailable
The Fold is a critical visual and psychological investigation into the enduring legacy of Orientalist and colonialist photographic practices, and the ways in which these gazes continue to shape how bodies—particularly veiled Islamic bodies—are seen, archived, and consumed.
This new body of work by Iranian artist Hoda Afshar takes as its starting point the vast archive of Gaëtan Gatian de Clérambault (1872–1934), a French psychiatrist and photographer who, in the early 20th century, produced thousands of images of veiled women—and sometimes men—in Morocco. Encountered by Afshar during her research at the musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac in Paris, these photographs were originally used by de Clérambault to support psychoanalytic theories around fantasy, covering, and desire, all filtered through a deeply colonial lens.
For the first time in her practice, Afshar engages directly with an archival body of work. Having discovered that the museum’s online archive automatically cropped de Clérambault's images upon downloading, Afshar furthers this degradation into an embedded commentary. By darkroom printing and digitally manipulating these fragments, she ruptures their original intent and transforms them into a space of resistance. Her interventions turn the gaze back on itself—inviting viewers to question the power dynamics woven into the act of looking, and to confront the cultural biases projected onto the veil.
Born after the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Afshar came of age in a society where the veil had become a central symbol in the negotiation of political and cultural identity. At the heart of her engagement with the archive is a recognition of how the Islamic female body has long been instrumentalised to serve competing ideologies. While unveiling was used to justify imperial conquest, re-veiling became a symbol of resistance—yet has also been enforced by state authorities for coercive ends. Through the reworking of these colonial images, Afshar navigates this entangled history, forging a third path that critiques both external and internal forms of domination.
This experimental book gathers more than 960 of Afshar’s silver gelatin reappropriations of de Clérambault’s archive, each one a gesture of reworking, refusal, and critical reflection. The Fold includes essays by Ali Behdad and Annabelle Lacour, a conversation between Taous Dahmani and the artist, and is published to accompany Afshar’s solo exhibition Hoda Afshar. Performer l'invisible, at the musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac (30/9/2025 – 25/1/2026).
— —
First Edition / 2026
ISBN: 978-1-912719-64-8
Details: softcover, 9 1/2 x 10 inches
Features at a Glance
Product information
All our shipments are fully insured. For shipments valued over $150, a direct signature will be required upon delivery.
We utilize various shipping carriers, with FedEx Express being our primary choice for 2-Day and Overnight shipping within the US, as well as International deliveries.
We accept returns within 14 days of delivery, subject to a restocking fee of up to 15%. This fee is not for profit, but to cover the costs associated with selling an item. Each return is evaluated individually, and we strive to minimize this fee. In many instances, we waive it entirely if the refund credit can be applied towards another item in the store.
Please note, all returned items must be in the condition in which they were shipped. If the items are returned in a different condition, we will not be able to accept them.
We highly recommend visiting us in person to experience our fine photographic tools before deciding which tool best fits your needs. Please note that our inventory is distributed among our three stores, and what you see online may be at any of these locations. Below are a few points that we’d like to make in order to meet your needs for in store pick up.
The location of each item is indicated online. For convenience, you can choose to pick up your item at any of our stores. Once purchased, the item should be ready for pick up within 4 hours at the designated store, although this might vary depending on the store's busyness and time of day. We request that you wait for a notification from us confirming that your order is ready for pick up, to ensure the best service.
If your chosen item is not available at your preferred store, we can transfer it there after purchase. If you want to pick up an item at a different store, select that store for pick up during checkout, or choose a regular shipping method and let us know your preferred pick up store via support@camerawest.com or by responding to your order confirmation email.
For any questions about in-store pick up, please email support@camerawest.com. We'll do our best to accommodate your needs.
We offer a concierge trade-in program for the gear you'd like to upgrade, cross-grade, or simply pass on to a new owner. This enables you to acquire the tools that fit your specific needs. The easiest way to trade is to bring your gear into one of our stores and meet with us in person. However, we also accommodate those who can't visit our stores. Our online process is both personal and simple.
To begin, fill out the form on our Trade // Sell page with the details of the fine photographic equipment or watches you'd like to trade in. One of our team members will then contact you to confirm any details we might need for an accurate estimate. We will provide an estimate that doesn’t only look at the value of your trade in but the whole picture of where you want to go. If the estimate is satisfactory to you, we can provide a shipping label for you to ship your gear to one of our stores for a final inspection and store credit. Finally, we apply that credit towards your new gear!
