This full-length photographic portrait of a European mother and daughter pair was taken by German photographer Robert Lenz. Lenz was based in Singapore in the late 19th century, but his photographic services were very popular among elites throughout Southeast Asia. The name of his photographic studio is embossed on the card upon which the print is mounted. The dynamics of Singapore’s colonial society is apparent through the subservience of the local man standing beside the seated European man. Local servants or workers were often included in such commissioned photographs to be seen as a form of status symbol. Such photographs were sometimes taken to be sent home to Europe, and this demand resulted in the popularity of the photography studios set up by non-Western photographers in the late 19th and early 20th century. Well-to-do families and individuals, mostly wealthy businessmen or European traders and government officials, visited such studios to have their photographs taken.
