Van Leo, Self Portrait (1942). Van Leo Collection, Rare Books and Special Collections Library, The American University in Cairo

Richard Moss takes a good look at the portraits of Van Leo, showing at the University of Brighton Art Gallery until November 4 2006.

As part of Brighton Photo Biennial Brighton 2006, the University Art Gallery on Grand Parade is hosting the extraordinary self portraits of Armenian-Egyptian photographer Van Leo.

A famous and accomplished portrait photographer of the rich and famous in the Forties and Fifties, Van Leo also took a series of self portraits in his Cairo studio that played out his own fantasies.

What’s perhaps most remarkable about these fresh looking self portraits is the fact that they pre-date the work of other notorious self portraitists such as Cindy Sherman or Bruce Nauman - by forty of fifty years. Yet at first glance many of them look like they were taken yesterday.

Van Leo, Self Portrait (1945). Van Leo Collection, Rare Books and Special Collections Library, The American University in Cairo

As a teenager, Van Leo developed a fascination with portraiture, glamour and the burgeoning Cairo film industry and during World War Two he quickly established himself as a professional black and white photographer. This was a time when Cairo was awash with troops from across the British Empire, and a host of stars and entertainers passed through the city.

Many of them visited his studio, which soon became a favourite haunt of dancers, movie stars, generals, writers and musicians – all of them eager to take advantage of Van Leo’s uncanny ability for producing flattering portraits that possessed a strong sense of dramatic impact.

This colourful procession of characters seems to have had a profound effect on the young photographer and one can picture Van Leo after a day photographing soldiers, actors and writers, working away in his Cairo studio to cast himself in the roles of the people he photographed.

Van Leo, Self Portrait (1944). Van Leo Collection, Rare Books and Special Collections Library, The American University in Cairo

Luckily he was a good looking guy, extremely photogenic and in all of these portraits we see a handsome albeit narcissistic young man who knew very well how to catch his best side.

He was also, it seems, something of a master of disguise and casts himself variously as a bearded Christ figure, a Mephisto/Crowley character, a hobo with plastic sunglasses, a soldier, prisoner, prince and movie director.

A short series begins with the photographer in negligée and make-up; another casts him in the role of movie starlet in pearls and winceyette shawl. Others seem to be heavy with homo-erotic subtexts.

The lighting in each of these portraits is masterly and very evocative of the forties, they are the kind of thing you would expect to find in the movie star lobby stills of the period and many of the photographs are reminiscent of Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart. There is in fact a fine noir series with Van Leo cast as private dick, hoodlum and inner city gangster.

Van Leo, Self Portrait (1945). Van Leo Collection, Rare Books and Special Collections Library, The American University in Cairo

Film buffs might also recognise Howard Hughes, Humphrey Bogart in the African Queen, Jimmy Cagney in Angels with Dirty Faces, each photographed with an abstract play of light and dark.

More bizarre private desires are played out in two photographs where he appears as a version of himself caressing the classical bust of a female figure.

Looking at these photographs is like stumbling upon the secret diary of a fantasist – real Walter Mitty stuff. It seems that Van Leo was, on the face of it, an escapist who dreamed of a role in the movies.

But that is to forget that here is a highly accomplished and gifted photographer. These portraits, for all their strangeness and quirky fascination, offer a valuable glimpse into one of the true masters of portrait photography.

For more information about Brighton Photo Biennial 2006 visit www.bpb.org.uk