Steen van de balseming in de Heilig Grafkerk in Jeruzalem 1867 - 1885

This photograph of the Stone of Unction in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem, was taken by Félix Bonfils. In this time, photography was not just a means of documentation, but a painstaking and alchemic craft. Bonfils would have used the wet collodion process, requiring glass plates to be coated, sensitized, exposed, and developed within a short time. The heavy equipment, the portable darkroom, and the chemical expertise all speak to a considerable investment of labour and resources. The resulting albumen print, made by coating paper with egg white to give a glossy surface, has a remarkable clarity and tonal range. The choice of such a sacred site, captured with such deliberate skill, invites us to consider the photograph not just as a record, but as a carefully constructed object of devotion. It reminds us that even the newest technologies are quickly imbued with cultural meaning and reverence.