This thesis investigates Middle Eastern Contemporary Art and the photographic art being produced by artists from the North American Diaspora. Currently base in New York, Egyptian artist Youssef Nabil’s self-portraits are the site of exploration that drive my theoretical ideas of exile and identity. Most importantly, I discuss how an Exilic Aesthetic is created through Youssef Nabil’s self-identification in his mediated photographs, articulating cultural dichotomies facing the Middle Eastern diaspora in North America through his own visual narrative. After having discussed diasporic and exilic identity, I explore the concept of Islamic/non-Western Modernities and their relationship to displacement, trauma, and Arab sexualities/masculinities within a post-colonial framework. Through the analysis of Nabil’s photographic art, my intent is to see if we can reach a Modernity narrative that works beyond sexual oppression versus acceptance, and instead examines a negotiation of diasporic sexuality by incorporating different sociological strategies to help self-identification categories be less dichotomous.