Berglandschap in Egypte, in de verte de Sinaïberg 1868 - 1869

This photograph of the Sinai Mountain was taken by James McDonald in 19th-century Egypt. As photography developed, it became a tool for documenting and shaping perceptions of distant lands. The image shows a mountain range with a figure seated on a rock, which gives a sense of scale and emphasizes the vastness of the landscape. Nineteenth-century European and American audiences often viewed such images through the lens of colonialism and orientalism, projecting their own cultural biases onto the depicted regions. This photograph can be understood within that tradition of representing non-Western landscapes as exotic and mysterious. To fully understand this image, we can research the history of photography in colonial contexts, tourist accounts of the Sinai region, and the role of visual media in shaping Western attitudes toward the Middle East. Art becomes a vital tool for understanding the complex interplay between culture, power, and representation.