In the view of Rawi Hage, little has changed in the former colonies. The colonial elite has simply been replaced by a national elite, which lives according to the same norms. Hage converted his critique into a series of photographs for which he had a number of wealthy Lebanese families pose with their domestic staff. In a glance one can see that class differences still exist. The maid in her uniform reminds one of colonial times and the gaudy interiors, which look like they came from a soap opera, seem to want to evoke the atmosphere of a colonial mansion.

At an early age Rawi Hage (b. 1964) fled the country of his birth, Lebanon. He settled in Canada, where he is active as a writer, photographer and visual artist. With DEVELOPING AND THE UNDERDEVELOPED he wants to show 'the comic and absurd relation between the classes', in which 'the one becomes an element in the household of the other - a symbol of status, cleanliness and beauty'.