Given this week's Sepia Saturday photo prompt of a statue, I've decided to feature the work of an amateur photographer who pioneered the use of the calotype photographic process to illustrate travel. During the 1840s most photographic views of landscapes were made using the daguerreotype process introduced and rapidly popularised by Louis Daguerre and others. Daguerreotypes produced landscapes with wonderfully fine detail, but the only way that such one off photographs could be replicated for publication was to transform them into engravings.
Camera style used for calotypes, c.1845
However the calotype process, patented by William Henry Fox Talbot in 1841, had a significant advantage in that multiple prints could be produced from a single paper negative. In addition, the ability to prepare several days' worth of negative paper in advance considerably lightened the load of equipment that a photographer had to carry.
Maxime Du Camp (1822-1894)
Maxime Du Camp, a French writer of independent means, learned the calotype process from the innovative and influential Gustave Le Gray in 1848, and late the following year accompanied his friend Gustave Flaubert on a tour of the "Orient." His official mission from the Ministry of Public Education was ostensibly to record the details of monuments and their inscriptions.
Westernmost Colossus of the Temple of Re, Abu Simbel
Salted paper print from paper negative by Maxime Du Camp, 1849-1850
Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Acc # 2005.100.376.149
Both DuCamp and Flaubert wrote journals of their experiences, and excerpts have been used in Steegmuller's Flaubert in Egypt: A Sensibility on Tour. Stegmuller has also published a collection of Flaubert's letters, a portion of which can be read online, and from which I took the following extracts about DuCamp and his photographic exploits.
Cairo, Saturday night, 10 o'clock. December 1, 1849.
Behind the partition I hear the young Maxime, preparing solutions for his negatives.
Vue du grand Sphinx et de la grande pyramide de Menkazeh (Mycerinus)
Salted paper print from paper negative by Maxime Du Camp, Dec 1849
Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Acc # 2005.100.376.149
Max's days are entirely absorbed and consumed by photography. He is doing well, but grows desperate whenever he spoils a picture or finds that a plate has been badly washed. Really, if doesn't take things easier he'll crack up. But he has been getting some superb results, and in consequence his spirits have been better the last few days. The day before yesterday a kicking mule almost smashed the entire equipment.
Intérieur du Temple de Khons, à Karnac, Thèbes
Salted paper print from paper negative by Maxime Du Camp, 1849-1850
Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Acc # 2005.100.376.20
I have seen Thebes: it is very beautiful. We arrived one night at nine, in brilliant moonlight that flooded the columns. Dogs were barking, the great white ruins looked like ghosts, and the moon on the horizon, completely round and seeming to touch the earth, appeared to be motionless, resting there deliberately. Karnak gave us the impression of a life of giants.
Colosse restauré d' Aménophis III, à Thèbes
(Statue vocale ou Colosse de Memnon)
Salted paper print from paper negative by Maxime Du Camp, 1849
Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Acc # 2005.100.376.76
I spent a night at the feet of the colossus of Memnon, devoured by mosquitoes. The old scoundrel has a good face and is covered with graffiti. Graffiti and bird-droppings are the only two things in the ruins of Egypt that give any indication of life.
"Coiffure des Femmes de Nazareth," Palestine
Salted paper print from paper negative by Maxime Du Camp, 1850
Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Acc # 2000.118
After a couple of months in Egypt they moved in to Palestine, Syria and Lebanon, where DuCamp's output was unfortunately far less prolific. Upon his return to France later that year he showed his prints to Blanquart-Everard, who published 125 of them in an elegant edition of approximately 200 leather-bound copies entitled Egypte, Nubie, Palestine et Syrie, probably the world's first photographic travel book, as well as individual prints.
The artistry in Ducamp's calotypes is not held in particularly high regard:
Ducamp's photographs ... reflect his working purpose and follow the pattern of earlier documetary etchings and lithographs ... (He) moves from a distant overall view to an closer one, at times honing in on a detail or two, always positoning his subject in the center of the frame. The overall effect is straightforward and banal. The poor quality of photographs printed by DuCamp himself also indicate his lack of concern for aesthetics. The one original aspect of his work is his use of a Nubian man, ostensibly as a measure of scale, but who is often almost invisible, posed in odd nooks and crannies of the ancienty tombs and temples.
Hannavy, 2008
"Vue générale des ruines de Baâlbek, prise à l'Est," Lebanon
Salted paper print from paper negative by Maxime Du Camp, Sep 1850
Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Acc # 2005.100.376.155
On the other hand his pioneering status is widely respected. Many photographers would follow in his footsteps to the Middle East, among them the far more well known Francis Frith, Felix Bonfils, Antonio Beato, and even his former mentor Gustave Le Gray, but DuCamp was among the first, showing what was possible with the crude technology available at the time.
Eastern Facade of the Temple of the Sun, Baalbek, Lebanon
Kodachrome positive transparency, taken 25 May 1997
Photo Copyright © 1997 Brett Payne
From my own experiences of trying to photograph monuments in the desert (see image above), managing the harsh sunlight is very tricky, and I have the greatest of admiration for DuCamp's efforts with rudimentary equipment under very difficult conditions.
References
Ballerini, Julia (2008) DuCamp, Maxime (1822-1894) French photographer and writer,in Encyclopedia of nineteenth-century photography: A-I, index, Volume 1, John Hannavy (ed.), Taylor & Francis, on Google Books.
Meltzer, Steve (2012) The birth of travel photography: Du Camp and Flaubert’s 1849 trip to Egypt, North Africa and the Middle East, on Imaging Resource, 30 October 2012.
Rosenblum, Naomi (1984) A World History of Photography, New York: Abbeville Press.
Stegmuller, Francis (1972) Flaubert in Egypt: A Sensibility on Tour, Boston: Little Brown.
Stegmuller, Francis (ed.) (1979) The Letters of Gustave Flaubert, 1830-1857, Volume 1, on Google Books.
Maxime Du Camp, Wikipedia article
Sorry, I don't mean to be disrespectful of poor Max (what did that critic know, anyway!), but locating the Nubian man in his photographs reminded me of "Finding Waldo". What really caught my eye, however, was his print of the Sphinx showing how much of the statue remained undiscovered at the time. (I had to use a magnifying glass to find 'Waldo' in that one!) :)) Your own photograph of the Temple of the Sun was nicely done though I wonder how many shots you had to take to get the perfect one?
ReplyDeleteWho is Waldo?..... I thought. I guessed right first time....its a North American Wally ! Now I know more...."The books have since been widely published throughout the world in nineteen different languages to date. Wally’s name is often changed for these different editions. For instance, he’s “Waldo” in the US and Canada, “Charlie” in France, “Walter” in Germany, “Ali” in Turkey, “Efi” in Israel, and “Willy” in Norway."
DeleteMany of the monuments we see now were either partly or fully excavated in the 1800s. There are a couple of dozen shots which I took at Baalbek, and I'm afraid to say that very few of them turned out well. Yes, we call it "Where's Wally" too.
DeleteVery interesting. The figures of people added a lot to the images.
ReplyDeleteA sense of scale to start with.
DeleteThe only place I've been where I have been so impressed was on Crete at Knossos. The Middle East has magnificent statues and the move of Abu Simbel to keep it safe was a magnificent engineering achievement.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see the ruins at Knossos ... one day, perhaps.
DeleteHelp me with perspective. The Colossus of the Temple of Re -- are we looking up a wall?
ReplyDeleteI know very little about photography, but I do know these are OLD pictures but they are just clear and detailed as you'd ever want. Amazing. So many of my inherited family photos are just bad, I know that -- poor camera, poor paper, poor technique, and GLUE.
Yes, more or less, Wendy. The statue is set against a vertical face of rock.
DeleteThese photos remind me very much of all the photos in my Arthur Mee's encyclopaedia set.
ReplyDeleteYes, you're right, and perhaps there's a good reason for that. These early photographers used landscape paintings and engravings to guide their composition, and probably set the tone for photographic views for many decades.
DeleteWhen I think of how difficult it must have been back then just to make the trip alone. Not to mention the equipment and the talent involved I am amazed. Thank you for our first glimpses Maxime Du Camp and thank you Brett Payne for introducing us.
ReplyDeleteIt's as much of a learning process for me, and most enjoyable.
DeleteGreat to learn of early photo printing process. What does salted paper print mean? I guess I need to learn more about Calotype prints, sounds very interesting.
ReplyDeleteNot table salt, Barb - it refers to the silver salts used in the printing process. You can read a bit more here and here.
DeleteYour mention of Baalbek reminded me of a recording I have of Lebanese singer Fairuz singing at a festival held in Baalbek. I haven't seen many photos of it though.
ReplyDeleteI'm fortunate enough to have been shown around it by a local resident, one of my wife's relatives, at a time when there were very few other visitors, and certainly no other Western tourists. No doubt it is very different today.
DeleteGreat post, Brett. By coincidence I am presently reading a history of Egypt: Three Empires on the Nile: The Victorian Jihad, 1869-1899 by Dominic Green, and I can see how these early images influenced how French and British people learned about Egyptian antiquities and history. This was before the Suez canal and travel on the Nile must have been quite challenging for Europeans. Even with the calotype process, keeping the equipment and chemicals in good order on such a long journey required enormous patience and planning. I would like to see how they packed it all and carried it back to France.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mike. I hadn't realized until I started studying it from this angle how important the images were, and still are, in our perception of the "Egyptian" era.
DeleteActually, the equipment needed for calotypes was perhaps not as elaborate as might be imagined - paper negatives were light and relatively easy to lug around. After the invention of the superior collodion positive process, the paraphernalia got even more cumbersome, and the preservation and shipping home of the glass plate negatives required a well thought out logistics operation.
I find your photos to be very amazing, quite fine in detail and condition, as well as the story that unravels, along the way. I always find the writings of people and especially photographers, so darn remarkable, like I had the chance of being along for the journey. Right down to the bird droppings, now that is an image we all know so well!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment, Karen. I was disappointed that I didn't manage to find a bit more of Flaubert's personal accounts of the journey online, since he writes so well and they do give such an wonderful flavour of the journey - as you say, like being along for the ride. Perhaps I'll order a copy of Flaubert in Egypt.
DeleteI can only imagine the feeling these early photographers had each time they succeeded with a new technique and see the results. So little effort goes into digital shots.
ReplyDeleteYes Jackie, you're right about the majority of digital photos. It's just too easy to take hundreds and pick out the best - at least that's what I find myself doing.
DeleteWell if he was going to "crack up" at his troubles making prints while traveling, I can only guess how much of a fissure there was when he read this review.
ReplyDeleteI like his shots. There's a romance to them.
Fortunately he was long gone by the time this verdict was given. I like them too. There's not just a romance about them, but an innocence too, which I find makes them more genuine. Sure they had all the prejudices about the land they were in that we abhor today, but he was not pretending.
DeleteI don't think I have ever seen photographs as old as these. So marvellous that they have survived.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed them genepenn.
DeleteI was very interested in the Egyptian photos, having been to Egypt twice and visited these sites. Well not the original site of Abu Simbel! What an amazing feat of engineering moving the mountain before damming the area.
ReplyDeleteMy father-in-law was born in Alexandria, but despite that I've only passed through Cairo once - enough time to visit the pyramids, the Sphinx, the museum and a carpet shop, but I've yet to boat up the Nile or see the wonders of Abu Simbel. I did, however, marvel at this huge engineering feat through the pages of National Geographic when it happened.
DeleteFascinating as ever, Brett! Easy for some critic to make those derogatory comments in 2008 about someone who was clearly a real pioneer of the photographic art so far back in the past.
ReplyDeleteThey have a charm about them that is hard to dismiss so easily.
Delete