Photographs of Egypt: Luxor to Wady Hulfa,

ca. 1860

Felice Beato was the one of the first photographers to devote himself entirely to documenting the architecture, people, landscape, and cultural monuments of Asia and the Near East. Travelers on the Grand Tour of Egypt during the mid-nineteenth century would have had the relatively new opportunity to purchase photographic albums like Photographs of Egypt— as well as postcards and single images—as souvenirs of their journey. Beato often made the clever choice to photograph the imposing monuments from a distance, contrasting them with diminutive figures nearby, and in so doing highlighting their grand scale. This compositional strategy contributed to the commercial success of Beato’s travel photographs, which helped spread “Egyptomania” among Europeans and Americans.

Katherine A. Bussard, Peter C. Bunnell Curator of Photography,
Princeton University Art Museum