Albumen Photograph. Karnak, Egypt. Gabriel Lekegian. Nineteenth Century

Large albumen print showing the bottom of a column from the great temple of Karnak. A man seated with his arms outstretched indicates its size.
This photograph is the work of Gabriel Lekegian.
G. Lekegian is representative of the second generation of commercial photographers established in Egypt. Antonio Beato preceded him – in this district of Azbakiyya that will be occupied by the Armenian studio –, Hippolyte Béchard, the Bonfils, Pascal Sebah, and still others, more or less well documented. Lekegian probably settled as a photographer in Cairo between 1887 and 1892. The one who was a painter in Constantinople will sign most of his negatives "Photo[ography] Art[istic] G. Lekegian & Co", as shown in the pictures offered here . His flourishing production is divided between views of architecture and Egyptian types. If it denotes, in most cases, a classical sense of composition, we also read there a desire for form in the construction of plans, the attention paid to light, and it sometimes conceals a conception of lines of sight bold.
H_28 cm W_21.5 cm.
Albumen print, circa 1890-1900, from a silver gelatin bromide glass negative, titled and signed in the negative. Good state of conservation, yellowing of the paper in the margin, a tear of one centimeter in the margin, without loss.