(en) Vintage photography Middle East. Photographer Bonfils
Beautiful image by Bonfils, the important French photographer, whose work was developed, mainly in the Middle and Near East.The photo is signed by Bonfils with the number 191, to the left of the image next to the man leaning against the column.
I do not know the place represented, please, if you know him please contact.
La Maison Bonfils carried out its work between 1867 and 1938 which finally closed.
This photo belongs to his first time being able to date around 1870 or before.Bonfils died 1885 according to her study her son Adrien and his widow.In 1878 Bonfils medal won in the International Exhibition of Paris
Bonfils Wikipedia
Bnf Exhibition
Felix Bonfils life
Bonfils Gallery
Félix Bonfils (1831–1885), a French printer turned photographer,
moved to Beruit in 1867 and opened a photographic studio. He
photographed the cities and sites of the eastern Mediterranean including
Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and Greece, which he visited in
1868–1870 and again in the mid–1870s. His photographs of Greece were
included in the albums Architecture Antique: égypte, Grèce, Asie Mineure. Album de photographies (1872) and Souvenirs dOrient
(1878). Bonfils's wife Lydie, son Adrien, and daughter Félicie were all
involved in the family business, which also employed numerous assistant
photographers. Their firm became a very successful and prolific
purveyor of commercial travel views, with distrubutors in Alexandria,
Cairo, Jerusalem, Damascus, Port Said, Paris, and Basel. Adrien took
over direction of photography expeditions in 1878, and ran the firm
after his father's death until the late 1890s. Lydie then managed the
firm, eventually selling it around 1909 to Abraham Guiragossian, who
continued using the Bonfils name into the 1930s.
L'Institut national d'histoire de l'art INHA
L'Institut national d'histoire de l'art est un établissement public à
caractère scientifique, culturel et professionnel (EPSCP), destiné à
promouvoir la recherche scientifique en histoire de l'art. Il est placé
sous la double tutelle des ministères de l'Enseignement supérieur et de
la Recherche et de la Culture et de la Communication.
Collection PhotographiesFelix Bonfils
Exhibition Archive Photographic Recollections: Ancient and Islamic Monuments in the Near East 1850-1880
Some of the photographers featured, such as James Robertson, Felix Bonfils and
Wilhelm Hammerschmidt, settled and established studios in Istanbul, Beirut or
Cairo, to deal directly with the increasing numbers of travellers to the area.
Other photographers, like Francis Frith, Frank Mason Good, Giacomo Brogi and
Francis Bedford, undertook extensive and laborious expeditions to acquire their
negatives, which they sold to the home market from catalogues, or, in the case
of the Italian Brogi and the English Bedford, published in magnificent albums
.......L'atelier
Bonfils, fondé à Beyrouth en 1867, est l'archétype
de l'atelier familial prospère pendant des décennies (il
fut vendu en 1918 à Abraham Guiragossian, associé depuis
1909). Félix, avec sa femme, Lydie, et leurs enfants, Adrien et
Félicie, s'établit définitivement à Beyrouth
en 1867 pour y pratiquer la photographie.....
......Ces vues sont vendues une par une au choix
mais aussi rassemblées sous forme d'albums. Bonfils présente
d'abord en 1872 son Architecture antique, publiée par Ducher
à Paris. Mais il faut signaler tout particulièrement une
série de cinq volumes intitulés Souvenirs d'Orient ..
....Certaines photographies sont l'œuvre du fils
et d'autres d'assistants anonymes. Si l'ensemble du catalogue est intéressant,
en particulier pour la Palestine et la Syrie, abondamment représentées
alors que la production commerciale est en général plus
fournie pour l'Égypte et la Turquie, la multiplicité des
auteurs explique de sensibles fluctuations de qualité. ...........
THE LIGHT OF ANCIENT ATHENS: A Photographic Journey by Félix Bonfils, 1868–1875
..Viewed objectively,
the Bonfils photographs provide valuable information about the condition
of the ancient monuments and the urban landscape of Athens around 1870.
In addition, they illustrate the most important stations on a traveler’s
itinerary and the preferred points of view from which the monuments and
city were to be seen. Taken together, the photographs construct an idealized
city, more ancient than modern....
- Getty Museum
In Search of Biblical Lands: From Jerusalem to Jordan in Nineteenth-century Photography
As visitors increased, the Holy Land became a subject for the nascent
medium of photography introduced in 1839. Rather than soaring vistas or
monumental architecture, photographers captured a more modest scene:
ancient villages nestled in a stony landscape, a once-great city
subsiding within its walls, and people repeating patterns of life
unchanged over millennia.