The photograph is laid on card with the studio stamp "F.B. Stewart, Poona". The image is of Jérôme Priem, a Belgian civil servant who worked alongside Joseph Naus as part of the 1898 pioneering mission to Persia to introduce a customs and excise framework for the country. At one stage of the mission, Jérôme Priem was directly responsible for customs and excise in Tabriz. Joseph Naus went on to become the Persian Minister of State for Finance, before leaving the country in 1907, after the constitutional revolution the year before.
Jérôme Priem is wearing a fancy dress costume, as the photograph was taken as a result of his attendance of a large reception hosted by Lord Northcote in Poona, India on 28 August 1903 to mark his departure as Governor of Bombay. Of note is that agitation in response to new taxes and levies also began in 1903 in Tabriz.
The photographer, Francis Benjamin Stewart, was based in Poona, a British garrison town and was known for both his photography and film making.