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PORTRAITS It is very likely that the few portraits made by Girault de Prangey while travelling through the Near East were the first photographic portraits ever to be made there. They are certainly the earliest to survive. He always included figures in his drawings and paintings and may have intended to use some photographs as studies for these. He made three very different kinds of portraits: European consular representative who were stationed in the Near or Middle East pursuant to the Settlements agreements, and members of their families and friends; Near and Middle East officials, see Christie's auction, London, May 2000, lots 7 and 8; and local individuals in their traditional dress, see May 2003 auction, lots 34 and 49. His European sitters may already have known how to pose for the camera. The local people he encountered and photographed would have no similar experience. Did he explain his request by showing them other daguerreotypes already made? Did he present the sitter with a portrait or pay money for keeping their likeness? How many refused permission before one agreed? These questions only hint at a few of the dilemmas confronting someone making photographs of strangers who are unlikely to have seen a camera before. Throughout the history of photography, seemingly beginning with Girault de Prangey, there has been a curiosity on the part of European photographers to show the appearance of people from foreign lands and different cultures. Under various guises from anthropology to tourism, thousands of individuals have been scrutinised by the camera. Some have been placed next to measuring devices and photographed from front, back and side to present a pseudo-scientific record of themselves for western eyes, others removed from their usual surroundings to pose in unlikely settings wearing costumes the photographer felt were more exotic than their own, or no costume at all. The images from the second half of the 19th century alone, when photography first grew from an amateur to a professional pursuit, range across a spectrum embracing both the sensitive and the crude. By the early 20th century one gets the impression that in some locations such as Egypt, every aspect of the commercial "exotic portrait" had been refined to a point of sometimes sterile perfection. Girault de Prangey's portraits are not like this. Technically flawed, the figures are often blurred or the exposures a little off. It doesn't matter. The people patiently reveal themselves for the first time despite these imperfections, first to him and now after many generations to us.

JOSEPH-PHILIBERT GIRAULT DE PRANGEY

225. Assuouan, Nubiens.

Details

JOSEPH-PHILIBERT GIRAULT DE PRANGEY
225. Assuouan, Nubiens.
Daguerreotype. n.d.[1843-44] Titled and numbered in ink on label on verso.
3¾ x 3¼in. (9.5 x 8.1cm.)

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Lot Essay

This little daguerreotype is quite extraordinary. Taken at Aswan, it shows seven figures including three young children, presumably all from one family of Nubians. Nubia, now within southern Egypt and Sudan, has a history spanning over 5000 years and Nubians were traditionally farmers, living in villages near the Nile.

This family is posed in a relaxed manner, standing and sitting on the rough ground in front of some rocks. The naked little girl sits on top of one of the rocks, supported by her older brothers, one of whom wears a dagger across his chest. The young child on the right has given up any attempt to look towards the camera and rests his head on his arms wearily. The others mostly do look towards us with expressions that appear to mix interest with some hesitation and doubt, but no hostility. The result is a respectful, but surprisingly informal portrait.

There are no other similar photographs in the archive. One other portrait of a young Nubian, numbered 226 is in the collection of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The daguerreotypes with the preceding and subsequent numbers survive and are of different subjects, suggesting these were the only two made.

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