Egypte, Nubie, Palestine et Syrie - Travel Photos

One of the first to go in search of Egyptian antiquities was the French writer Maxime Du Camp. He set about learning how to take pictures so that he could document a trip which he would make in company with his good friend and fellow writer Gustave Flaubert. In November 1849, they undertook an archaeological mission to Greece, Asia Minor, and the Middle East that would occupy them until 1851. Du Camp sardonically recounted that the taking of pictures was a relatively simple affair, but transporting the equipment by mule, camel, or human porters was an altogether more difficult matter.

In 1852, his extraordinary photographs were published in a much sought-after book: Egypte, Nubie, Palestine et Syrie. It sparked keen interest in archaeology and an even keener interest in foreign travel. Those who could, did; those who preferred not to, sat back in their comfortable armchairs and let a growing army of photographers make the perilous voyages for them. Braving terrible heat, intense cold, insects, illness, and danger, these adventurers marched off to little-known and exotic places, then returned laden with photographic treasures to be enjoyed and studied in the sedate privacy of one's own home.

Readers gazed with awe at photographs from around the world: the Pyramids of Egypt, the thundering Niagara Falls in Upper Canada, the bazaars of the Orient. It was the indefatigable, peripatetic photographer who would first bind all of humanity in the shared delight of the world's geographic and cultural wonders.

Travel photography inevitably whetted the appetites of millions to take up a camera and travel also. Even the most timid thrill seekers were propelled out of their chairs to join an eager band of tourists swarming over the globe. Photographic safaris became popular, and soon photographs replaced the stuffed lion and tiger heads mounted over fireplaces in Victorian parlors. The photograph became the ultimate testimonial, the coveted trophy.

Australian Henry Beaufoy Merlin, who captured Sydney Harbor in astonishing detail on one of the largest wet-plate negatives ever made - five feet by three and a half feet.