A man standing on stone steps of an alley in Algiers

A black and white photograph of a man standing on stone steps of an alley in Algiers. The man is at the centre of the image, with buildings either side of him. His right foot is on the third step from the bottom of the image, and his left foot is on the fourth. His torso is half turned towards the right side of the image. In his left hand, he holds an unidentified object, which is pressed against the left side of his torso and tucked into the crook of his elbow. On his head, he wears a dark-coloured, rounded hat, with a lighter-coloured downturned brim. On his torso, he is wearing a lighter undershirt with a dark garment on top, with only the cuffs and the collar of the undershirt visible. His shirt is folded at the cuffs, leaving his wrists and his lower forearm exposed. He wears loose, light-coloured trousers tucked into darker, knee-high boots. Ahead of the man, in the foreground of the photograph, are two arched doorways to the left of the image and one to the right. These arches lead into tall stone buildings, which extend from the very front of the image far into the background, behind the man, and extend vertically from the bottom corners of the image to the top edge. The second stories of both buildings overhang into the alley on cantilevered wooden joists. The joists protrude from the buildings into the upper centre. There are also thin wooden beams overhead in the alley that connect the upper levels of the buildings at several points. Directly above the man, there is a glass and metal lamp, attached to the building on the right side of the image by a bracket. The steps run through the centre of the image from the bottom edge upwards, dropping out of sight as they round a corner behind the man and to his right. They are constructed from stone bricks and have a deep tread; most are uneven and bowing in the middle. Original caption (handwritten in pencil beneath): 'Street in Algiers’.