Mosquée du Khalife Haakem Biamrillah, Le Kaire Possibly 1849 - 1852

This albumen silver print of the Mosquée du Khalife Haakem Biamrillah in Cairo was created by Maxime Du Camp in the mid-19th century. Du Camp traveled to Egypt with Gustave Flaubert in 1849, a period of French colonial expansion and growing Western interest in the Middle East. Du Camp’s photographs, like this one, were made using the calotype process, which often resulted in images with a soft, almost dreamlike quality. This aesthetic choice, combined with the subject matter, invites a dialogue about the representation of Islamic architecture by a European artist. Consider the power dynamics at play when a Western photographer captures images of a culture and a space that is not his own. The image, with its focus on the mosque’s imposing structure and the crumbling walls, evokes a sense of timelessness and perhaps even exoticism. It prompts us to think about the relationship between the photographer, his subject, and the viewers who would later encounter these images in Europe. It asks us to consider how photography can both reveal and obscure cultural realities.