The exhibition Gardens of Sand (Jardines de Arena) shows instant photos of the Middle East, taken in the second half of the 19th century by well-known photographers. The Western world’s fascination with exotic Eastern culture led these commercial photographers to visit cities like Tangiers, Alexandria, Cairo, Damascus, Istanbul and many other places from the Maghreb to Turkey. There they documented people, landscapes and architecture, showing the survival of ways of life and beliefs through images that are true black and white masterpieces. The exhibition includes 100 original photographs from a private American collection, never before seen in Europe.