This full-length photographic portrait of a European man beside a Malay man was taken by German photographer Robert Lenz, whose signature can be seen at the bottom left of the photograph. Lenz was based in Singapore in the late 19th century, but his photographic services were very popular among elites throughout Southeast Asia. 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.
