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One of the most prominent and successful British photographers of the second half of the nineteenth century, Frith specialized in travel photographs of ancient Egypt and the Holy Land that were meant to appeal to British armchair travelers. He made three expeditions from 1856 to 1860 and was among the first photographers in Egypt to use collodion glass negatives, which produced crisp, clear details. Typical of Frith's images from his first trip, this mammoth-plate photograph depicts the massive walls and statuary of the remains of the Ramesseum, or temple of Rameses II. By including European travelers and their Egyptian guides, the photograph conveys the monumental scale of the ruins and illustrates the contrast of two different cultures. | |