The meeting of East and West is as relevant today as when Rudyard Kipling wrote his widely misunderstood poem on the subject. This volume – and the exhibition at the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia which it accompanies – reveals how people from the two ‘ends of the earth’ met at London’s Lafayette photographic studio in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Rescued by an observant building worker in 1968, and now preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum, the portraits convey vital messages about identity and self-perception in an age of Western hegemony. Populated with sultans and rajas, soldiers and socialites, this volume is a feast for the eyes and a rewarding read for anyone interested in globalisation and questions of dress and identity