Gustave Le Gray (French, 1820-1884)

"Le Nil à Assouan," Egypt, 1867

Albumen print from waxed paper negative, 30.9 x 40.7 cm

Gustave Le Gray (1820-1884) trained as a painter and had become an innovator of photographic processes, developing the waxed paper negative around 1848. The exhibition includes Le Gray’s exceptionally lush landscape of the Nile through a stand of palm trees, “Le Nil à Assouan,” an albumen print from a waxed paper negative, taken in 1867 on his final photographic voyage. Having mastered the use of glass negatives ten years earlier, he appears to have deliberately returned to using paper negatives in Egypt to evoke the textures of the desert.

James Graham (Scottish, 1806-1869)

Panorama, the Pyramids of Giza, 1857

Coated salt print from a paper negative

10.2 x 25.8 cm mounted on 31.5 x 48.0 cm paper

James Graham, of an old Scottish family, arrived in Jerusalem in 1853 as the lay secretary of the London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews. He resigned that position in 1856, and in 1857 he traveled to Egypt and revisited Jerusalem and the Holy Land.

Graham’s interest in photography is mentioned in the memoirs of Elizabeth Anne Finn, wife of the British consul in Jerusalem. She wrote: “During the autumn there arrived a lay secretary for the English Mission, Mr. James Graham, of old Scotch family. He had heard from my friends in England of successful attempts at photography, so he learnt the art and brought with him a fine photographic apparatus which he used to excellent effect. Mr. Graham engaged the help of one of our congregation and taught him the art. That was the beginning of photography in Jerusalem.”

During his stay in Palestine, Graham photographed the area from Syria and Lebanon to Egypt. He met the English Pre-Raphaelite painters William Holman Hunt and Thomas Seddon who visited the Near East, and accompanied them in their journeys, taking photographs while they were painting. His photographs and their paintings often bear striking similarities that suggest that some of their work was done after his photographs.

Excerpted from Nissan N. Perez, Focus East, Early Photography in the Near East, 1839-1885 (New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc. and Jerusalem: The Domino Press, 1988), pp.171-172

John Beasley Greene (American, born in France, 1832-1856)

Sphinx and Pyramids, Necropolis of Memphis, Giza, 1853-1854

Waxed paper negative, 24.4 x 31.3 cm

After studying photography privately with Gustave Le Gray in Paris and Fontainebleau, Greene made his first voyage to Egypt at the age of 21. Greene arrived in Egypt in late 1853. An early stop on this first trip was Auguste Mariette's excavations at Giza. Mariette, an ex-journalist and linguistic prodigy whose credentials for excavating were based on his having catalogued all the hieroglyphic texts in the Louvre's Egyptian collections. He had been in Egypt since 1850 and by the time of Greene's arrival had already staked his nation's claim to the almost-buried stone Sphinx by erecting a French flag on its head. Greene's images of Mariette's excavations, to which he was given privileged access, are some of his earliest in Egypt. Greene's negatives were produced with the specific intention of creating positive prints and yet, any wider understanding of the artist must acknowledge the integrity of these negatives independent of this use.

John Beasley Greene (American, born in France, 1832-1856)

"Étude au dessus de Louqsor," circa 1854

Salt print from a paper negative, 23.0 x 29.9 cm

Once in Egypt, Greene was moved by the endless expanse of sky to create majestic views. In “Étude au dessus de Louqsor,” circa 1854, Greene's pictorial description is underscored by the effects produced by the paper negative and the salted paper print which were ideally suited to the textures of sand and stone, amplifying here the picturesque qualities of the landscape. 

Ernest Benecke (English, 1817-1894)

"Temple de Saboua, Nubie," 1852

Salt print from a paper negative

16.1 x 21.7 cm on 16.8 x 22.1 cm paper

Ernest Benecke was an Anglo-German photographer, the son of a banking family with financial interests in Egypt, who made over 150 calotypes during his travels in the Mediterranean and Middle East from 1850–1852. His photographic output is unique both in the number of photographs of people of the region, and in its early date. In addition to architecture and  landscape studies, his work includes some of the earliest photographs of the peoples of Egypt and Palestine and encompasses a range of classes and occupations—Nubian children, slave women, Bedouins, musicians, and beggars, as well as named sitters. Benecke inscribed the date, subject, and location in the negative of most of his images, thus providing a remarkable log of his journey and photographic interests. --Kathleen Howe

The European traveler standing on the left appears to be sketching the facade of the still half-buried temple.

Félix Teynard (French, 1817-1892)

"Nubie, Sebouah. Vue Générale du Temple. Pl. 130," 1851-1852

Salt print, 1853-1854, from a waxed paper negative, 23.8 x 30.8 cm

Félix Teynard (1817-1892) was one of the first visitors to Egypt to record its monuments and landscape in photographs. A civil engineer from Grenoble, who may have learned the waxed paper negative process from Le Gray, he traveled on an extended voyage to photograph the architecture and landscape of Egypt and Nubia in 1851-1852. Teynard’s images constituted the most complete photographic record to date of the Nile Valley from Cairo to the Second Cataract. These were printed by the Paris firm of Fonteny in 1853-1854 and published by Goupil in 1858.

John Beasley Greene (American, born in France, 1832-1856)

Cleopatra's Needle, Alexandria, 1853-1855

Waxed paper negative, 30.3 x 24.6 cm

Since Napoleon's arrival in 1798, Egypt had seen the West remove many of its treasures, including the obelisk from the temple of Luxor which in 1836 found its way to the Place de la Concorde in Paris. This obelisk, Cleopatra's Needle, Alexandria, a waxed paper negative from 1853-1855, which Greene has so mesmerizingly captured, is now located in Central Park behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Its twin resides on the Thames Embankment in London. While Greene could not prevent the removal of Egypt’s treasures, he was able to preserve them photographically, making these images his legacy to both scholarship and the history of art.

Félix Teynard (French, 1817-1892)

Louksor (Thebes). Construction Postérieure - Galeries Parallèles. Pl. 32, 1851-1852

Untrimmed proof salt print from a waxed paper negative

26.4 x 31.5 cm on 29.0 x 37.0 cm paper

Félix Teynard (1817-1892) was one of the first visitors to Egypt to record its monuments and landscape in photographs. A civil engineer from Grenoble, who may have learned the waxed paper negative process from Le Gray, he traveled on an extended voyage to photograph the architecture and landscape of Egypt and Nubia in 1851-1852. Teynard’s images constituted the most complete photographic record to date of the Nile Valley from Cairo to the Second Cataract. These were printed by the Paris firm of Fonteny in 1853-1854 and published by Goupil in 1858. Louksor (Thebes). Construction Postérieure-Galeries Parallèles, an untrimmed proof salt print from a waxed paper negative with dark borders, was not printed by Fonteny, but more likely by Teynard himself. Trim lines visible around the edges are instructions to the binder on how the print was to be trimmed for mounting.

John Beasley Greene (American, born in France, 1832-1856)

Mariette's excavations to the left of the Sphinx, Giza, 1853

Waxed paper negative, 24.4 x 31.3 cm

An American born in France, John Beasley Greene (1832-1856) made surprisingly modern images of Paris, Egypt, and Algeria in only four years, before his early death at age 24. After studying photography privately with Le Gray in Paris and Fontainebleau, Greene made his first expedition to Egypt from the fall of 1853 until June 1854. An early stop was Auguste Mariette's excavations at Giza. Mariette had been in Egypt since 1850 and by the time of Greene's arrival had already staked his nation's claim to the almost buried stone Sphinx by erecting a French flag on its head. Greene's images of Mariette's excavations, to which he was given privileged access, are some of the earliest and most poignant ever made in Egypt. With archaeologist and excavation team carefully posed around the site, this is one of the few Greene photographs to include any figures.

François Joseph Édouard de Campigneulles (French, 1826-1879)

Abu Simbel, Small Speos, 1858

Albumen print from a paper negative, 30.9 x 24.6 cm

De Campigneulles undertook a grand tour of the Middle East in 1858.  On this trip through Egypt, Palestine, Sinai, and Syria, de Campigneulles made wax paper negatives of views of monuments, archaeological sites, and ruins.  Thirty-eight photographs from this trip were exhibited for the first time in Paris in 1859 at the salon of the Société Française de la Photographie where they were appreciated by art historians and critics of the time.

By 1858, the stages of the Grand Tour were well established.  Despite the familiarity of these places, the views of de Campigneulles are those of an informed photographer.  The originality of his framed shots, the choice of location, and his mastery of the exposure of the negative exceed that of purely documentary work.

Félix Teynard (French, 1817-1892)

"Égypte, Karnak (Thèbes). Palais, Salle Hypostyle, Décoration de la Paroi Intérieure au Point L.

Pl. 58", 1851-1852

Salt print, 1853-1854, from a waxed paper negative, 30.6 x 24.9 cm

Teynard was a French engineer from Grenoble who may have learned the waxed paper negative process from Le Gray. He traveled on an extended voyage to photograph the architecture and landscape of Egypt and Nubia in 1851-1852. His images constitute the most complete photographic record to date of the Nile Valley from Cairo to the Second Cataract. These were printed by the Paris firm of Fonteny in 1853-1854 and the book, Egypte et Nubie, was published by Goupil in 1858. Teynard waited patiently for the best angle of raking light to highlight the hieroglyphics on the palace wall.

Félix Teynard (French, 1817-1892)

"Nubie, Débôd (Parembole). Vue Générale des Ruines. Pl. 106," 1851-1852

Salt print, 1853-1854, from a waxed paper negative, 23.9 x 31.2 cm

Félix Teynard (1817-1892) was one of the first visitors to Egypt to make an extended voyage up the Nile River to photograph the principal archaeological sites, the landscape, modern municipal buildings and dwellings of Egypt and Nubia in 1851-1852. Using his boat or a tent as a darkroom, enduring the rocking of the former on the water and the extreme heat of the latter in the middle of the desert, Teynard produced images that constituted the most complete photographic record of the Nile Valley from Cairo to the Second Cataract.