Medinet Habu, Mortuary Temple of Ramses III, Left Wall (Médinet-Habou, Temple funéraire de Ramsès III, paroi gauche 1854

John Beasley Greene made this photograph of the Mortuary Temple of Ramses III at Medinet Habu using the collodion process, which was state-of-the-art for its time. It involved coating a glass plate with a light-sensitive emulsion. Consider the labor involved, from quarrying the stone blocks of the temple itself, to carving the hieroglyphs and figures that cover every surface. The photograph captures this intensive human effort, but it also points to the labor required for its own making. Greene would have needed to transport his bulky equipment to the site, prepare the collodion solution in a portable darkroom, expose the plate, and then develop it immediately. The final print, made using silver salts, transforms the rough stone into a range of velvety greys. We can appreciate Greene’s skill in capturing the monument’s scale and detail, but also recognize how his work is part of a longer story of human ingenuity and toil. It bridges ancient craftsmanship with the emergence of industrial image-making.