I do not know who took the first photographs of Jerusalem but the work of the French daguerreotype artist Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey (1804-1892) must be among some of the very earliest and most exceptional.
Christies New York are holding an important auction on 7 October 2010 titled A Historic Photographic Grand Tour: Important Daguerreotypes by Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey.
http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/searchresults.aspxintSaleID=22822#action=refine&intSaleID=22822&sid=9c26b938-6538-4209-a124-54813e6e93a0
For everyone interested in the history of travel daguerreotypes from the earliest period, I recommend that they look at the catalogue which is available on line. It contains some of the earliest middle eastern photography known.
2 comments:
This is third auction from a collection of 900 plates that were found in a attic and held by one family for many years, some went to Museums in France and some to private collections but after the first auction offering in 2002 the family still nearly 600 plates.
The daguerreotypes are very early 1840's and were not subject to some of the improvements made to the process and so lack the "polish" of the process in its heyday. From a contemporary daguerreotypist viewpoint some of the plates bear the aberrations of the process that newcomers to it experience now - see the artist galleries of cdags.org to see similar blue toned images (underdevelopment or solarization) or ashen tones associated with less than optimal sensitization with halogens.
On this subject, I hardly recommand you the catalogue «Miroirs d'argent, daguerreotypes de Girault de Prangey», written by Christophe Dutoit and Sylvie Hanguely, made for the first monographic exhibition of Girault de Prangey. See the link below for a review.
http://www.iphotocentral.com/news/article_view.php/164/155/935/girault
The book can be ordered at this adress: http://www.musee-gruerien.ch/fr/museum/index2_3.htm
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