I have recently gained access to a private family collection of 39 photographs of ‘prostitutes’ from the Qajar era in Iran. The women are clearly posing for the photographer or photographers; some are alone, sitting on a chair or leaning on a table; some recline on carpets with patterned curtains or textiles as a backdrop. Some are pictured with another woman in a similar pose, and some have a servant, slave, or eunuch posing respectfully beside or behind them. They are of varying ages and represent different ‘types’ of beauty. All have uni-brows, some have thin mustaches, and many are posing with bare legs. Only one has her name written under her photograph: Akhtar Khanum. Who were these women? Who were they posing for? Who photographed them? Who were the intended viewers of these photographs and what services were the women (or those with power over them) advertising by the act of posing? Heeding Afsaneh Najmabadi’s call to ‘read visual texts historically” this paper is an attempt to perform an analytical reading of these photographs. The analysis is informed by theoretical literature on the social construction of gender and sexuality, secondary literature on the history of gender and sexuality in Iran (e.g. A. Najmabadi, R. Matthee,W. Floor), as well as studies on similar topics in the Ottoman Empire, (e.g. Suraiya Faroqhi, Irvin Schick). Textual sources from the Qajar period, such as historical chronicles, memoirs, police reports, provincial and urban histories, and travel literature provide the contextual backbone of the analysis.