In 1851, French photographer Félix Teynard embarked on his project, Egypt and Nubia: The Most Interesting Sites and Monuments for the Study of Art and History (French: Égypte et Nubie: Sites et monuments les plus intéressants pour l'étude de l'art et de l'histoire), creating a series of calotype prints documenting the monuments of ancient Egypt and Nubia. This body of work, crafted during Teynard's early career, captured the temples, statues, and landscapes that had long fascinated Europe during the burgeoning interest in Egyptology.
The mid-19th century witnessed a surge of European interest in the Near East, spurred by Napoleon’s Egyptian campaigns and subsequent archaeological endeavors. Teynard’s journey to the Nile coincided with a period of profound fascination with ancient civilizations, fueled by the publication of the Description de l'Égypte and the allure of Orientalism. His choice to document these sites with the calotype process—a nascent photographic technique involving paper negatives—underscored his commitment to exploring photography's dual role as a documentary and artistic medium.
Thematically, Teynard’s work delved into the relationship between permanence and decay. Through his lens, the ruins of Karnak, Philae, and Abu Simbel emerged as contemplative symbols of timeless grandeur gradually eroded by the sands of time. Teynard’s photographs preserved these architectural sites and raised questions about the fragility of cultural heritage. His meticulous framing accentuated the monumental scale of ancient structures, juxtaposed against the vast, unyielding desert, evoking a profound sense of both isolation and significance.
Issued in installments from 1853 and gathered as Égypte et Nubie (Goupil, 1858), Teynard’s calotype atlas was costly and little exhibited at the time; its modern status has been shaped by museum reassessments—such as Procession to the Fallen Gods: Photography in Nineteenth-Century Egypt (J. Paul Getty Museum, 1987) and Oasis for the Eye: Félix Teynard’s Photographs of Egypt, 1851–1852 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1990)—and by substantial holdings at institutions including the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
