Mannen met kamelen bij de Piramide van Chefren en de Sfinx van Gizeh before 1914

This albumen print, titled 'Men with Camels at the Pyramid of Chephren and the Sphinx of Giza', was created by the photographer LL. The albumen print process, popular in the 19th century, involved coating paper with egg white and then a silver nitrate solution, creating a light-sensitive surface. The negative would be placed on the paper and exposed to sunlight, resulting in a detailed image with a distinctive sepia tone. What's fascinating here is how this photographic process, itself a kind of industrializing craft, is used to depict a very different mode of production – the ancient monuments of Egypt, built by human labor on a massive scale. The pyramids and sphinx, testaments to human ingenuity and toil, are juxtaposed with the relatively new technology of photography. The print serves as a record, capturing a moment in time, while also hinting at the vast differences in the labor and materials involved in creating these very different kinds of images. The contrast invites us to consider the social and historical contexts of both the photographed subject and the photographic process itself.