Cairo to Constantinople: early photographs of the Middle East

Fascinating exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace tracing a journey made by the then Price of Wales (later Edward VII) to the Middle East in 1862.

The show told the story through the photographs of Francis Bedford who was among the entourage and used them to look at the cultural and political significance of the region at that time. There were also objects which the Prince collected on his travels which had been in the Royall Collection ever since.

It is easy to forget when looking at slightly clichéd pictures of Egypt that these were early days of exploring the area and when the photographs were exhibited on their return to England that these may have been some of the first images the public had seen of the region.

I loved a photo of a display of objects which the Prince had bought in a market shown with all but one of the objects in the same arrangement.

The later section on the Holy Land was fascinating and included pictures of the great crusader castles.

Review
Evening Standard

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