Wf1/4622(19)

Genre: Landscape Photography

View from below, looking towards the mosque, with figures seated in the shade beneath a clump of palms in the foreground: 'With reference to my picture I may observe, that the ruin is that of an old mosque, near the Island of Philae, and perhaps almost the only vestige of religious observance in the whole of Nubia. It has the repute, also, of being one of the oldest mosques in Egypt. The palm is a tolerable fine specimen of the many-stemmed or branching variety, with an abundance of fan-shaped leaves...' In the note to this print, Frith also supplies information on his photographic equipment for taking his large-format views (not the photographs in this volume): 'It may interest my brethren of the Black Art (as my mother calls it when she overhauls my shirts as they come from the wash) to know something of my photographic apparatus and modus operandi. Know, then, for the purpose of making large pictures (20 inches by 16), I had constructed in London a wicker-work carriage on wheels, which was, in fact, both camera and developing room, and occasionally sleeping room; so that the doctor whom I heard at a meeting of the Photographic Society a year or two ago ridiculing the rage for large pictures, and proposing, as the Ultima Thule of extravagance which his playful fancy could suggest, 'that men should have their cameras upon wheels, and large enough to sleep in,' (a remark which raised a hearty laugh through the room), committed an error common with wits — his remark being less facetious and imaginative than he supposed. This carriage of mine, then, being entirely overspread with a loose cover of white sailcloth to protect it from the sun, was a most conspicuous and mysterious-looking vehicle, and excited amongst the Egyptian populace a vast amount of ingenious speculation as to its uses. The idea, however, which seemed the most reasonable, and therefore obtained the most, was that therein, with right laudable and jealous care, I transported from place to place — my — harem! It was full of moon-faced beauties, my wives all! — and great was the respect and consideration which this view of the case procured for me!'