The imperialist lens: Du Camp, Salzmann and early French photography

Abstract

During the 1850s, the French government sponsored photographic missions to the Orient, the goal being to visually record and catalogue the monuments of Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon and Syria. The missions, however, also had a commercial side, as many of the photographers published their photographs as photographic albums, the Orient circulating as an academic tool and a consumable good. Maxime Du Camp (1822–1894) and Auguste Salzmann (1824–1872) led the charge; their albums are exemplary in their documentation of Egypt and Jerusalem and its subsequent commercialization via the first industrial photographic printing house in France. Yet Du Camp’s and Salzmann’s albums equally set the stage for photography’s role as an instrument of French imperialism. Indeed, the albums’ academic and commercial designs serve to reproduce and circulate the monuments of the Orient for French study and scrutiny. What is more, photography – initially defined as an objective, mechanical mode of reproduction – carries the cachet of visual truth. Du Camp’s and Salzmann’s Orient is not that of earlier painters, writers or illustrators, but rather Egypt and Palestine reproduced faithfully and without bias. This article examines Du Camp’s and Salzmann’s albums as key texts that mark the early weaving together of photography, imperialism and commercialism. Complementing the overview work that has been done on early French photography, the article provides a comparative case study of Du Camp’s and Salzmann’s albums. Moreover, the albums’ reproduction and commercialism are reconsidered as central elements in the construction and dissemination of French imperialist discourse and the growth of popular visual culture.