Brug over de Kidron en de graftombe van Absalom, nabij Jeruzalem c. 1867 - 1877

This albumen print, "Bridge over the Kidron and the tomb of Absalom, near Jerusalem," was made by Félix Bonfils, a French photographer working in the late 19th century. The albumen process involves coating paper with egg white and silver nitrate, creating a surface sensitive to light. What's fascinating here is the intersection of the technical and the cultural. Bonfils set up his studio in Beirut and took thousands of photographs of the Middle East. The act of capturing these images was itself laborious, involving the transport of equipment, careful preparation of chemicals, and long exposure times. The resulting photographs became commodities, feeding a European market hungry for images of distant lands. So, this image wasn't just a neutral record. It participated in a colonial gaze, framing a region and its history for Western consumption. The very materiality of the photograph - the specific tonal range achieved through the albumen process - contributed to this cultural exchange, turning distant landscapes into objects of desire. It prompts us to reflect on the intricate relationship between image-making, labor, and the dynamics of cultural power.