Image scanned from a transparency and color-corrected by Pat Cagney.

The Temple of El Karnak, from the South East

Artist Francis Frith (British, 1822 - 1898)

CultureBritish

Date1857

MediumMammoth albumen print from glass negative

DimensionsOverall, Image: 15 x 19 1/4 in. (38.1 x 48.9 cm)
Overall, Support: 22 1/16 × 29 9/16 in. (56 × 75.1 cm)
Overall, Mat: 26 × 32 in. (66 × 81.3 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase

Object number91.94

Not on view

DescriptionThis is a mammoth albumen print on its original mount.

Label TextFrancis Frith British, 1822–1898 The Temple of El Karnak, from the South East, 1857 Albumen print (photograph) from a glass negative Francis Frith traveled extensively along the Nile River in 1856, publishing thousands of photographs for viewers in England and America. The craze for photographs of the Holy Land and Egypt provided steady business, and Frith used the income to finance trips to parts of the Middle East never before seen by photographers. Traveling with an enormous camera and large glass plate negatives that required processing on site was challenging work. The cumbersome medium, however, created luxurious and detailed images, allowing Western audiences to feast their eyes on a world that seemed both mysterious and, once captured in photographs, familiar. Museum purchase 91.94 Exhibition History"A History of Photography: 15 Years of Photography at the Chrysler Museum," The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA; September 11, 1993-March 6, 1994. "History of Photography," Alice R. and Sol B. Frank Photography Galleries, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va, June 15, 1999 - January 2, 2000. "New Light on Land: Photographs from the Chrysler Collection," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, January 28 - May 15, 2016.