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A collection of studio portraits of naked prostitutes from Sumatra dating from around the end of the 19th century was probably secretly commissioned by an upmarket brothel - and by German ethnographers.The photographic studio behind this remarkable work took evident care to keep the provenance of the risqué portraits hidden. Careful detective work, however, reveals when as well as who took the pictures. The discovery is a surprise. Carl Kleingrothe has long been regarded as one of the leading photographers of late 19th/early 20th century South-East Asia. From his studio at the bustling port city of Medan on the East Coast of Sumatra in the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia), Kleingrothe had chronicled European imperialism and rapid industrialisation in the tropics. Noted as the chronicler of mundane plantations and factories, Kleingrothe secretly produced this erotica. The prostitutes, all nude, display individual character, their personalities suggested by their facial expression and body posture. The photographs present a fascinating range of women of varying ages, body shapes and sizes, and origins. The late 19th century Sumatran brothel was evidently a remarkably cosmopolitan workplace. It employed women from Europe, French Indochina, British India, Ceylon, and Malaya, as well as from Borneo, Java, Bali and other islands in the Netherlands East Indies.Published now for the first time, these photographs put human faces to 19th century prostitution in Asia.