PhotoLit - Malta

Text engl., fr. - For the complete illustrated text see also http://dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/Collection/SA3-1-118-1999E.pdf. - Joly de Lotbinière was one of the first individuals in the world to create and produce daguerreotypes. He was Swiss-born, became the Seigneur de Lotbinière through his marriage to Julie-Christine Chartier de Lotbinière. His family papers are preserved at the Archives nationales du Québec and microfilm copies are available at the National Archives of Canada. A record of his journeys in 1839-1840 and an inventory of the daguerreotypes he created are contained in his travel diaries. It is providential that his diaries have been preserved as they constitute the sole testament to his endeavours. Although he produced 92 daguerreotypes during his travels, none have survived in their original format; a few are available only as published engravings. In August 1839, Joly de Lotbinière was in Paris during the announcement of the Daguerrien process and there he was commissioned to record a Grand Tour using the new photographic process. He left on his voyage from Marseilles in September and after a brief stop in Malta, arrived in Greece and then proceeded to Egypt. From the inventory of daguerreotypes in his travel diary, we know that he took daguerreotypes of Athens and the Acropolis. In Egypt, the Sphinx at Giza, the Palace of Karnak, the Pyramid of Cheops, the Temple of Kom Ombo, the Colossi of Memnon, the Palace of Medinet Habu and various other views at Thebes, including the Temple of Isis at Philae. He also produced images in Jaffa, Jerusalem, Damascus and Mount Carmel, including a distant view of the Dead Sea from the Mount of Olives; and finally the Temple of the Sun and other views at Baalbec in Lebanon. While in Alexandria, Egypt, Joly de Lotbinière became acquainted with Horace Vernet, the classical painter, and his nephew, Frédéric Goupil-Fesquet, both fellow daguerreotypists. The three sub-sequently travelled together and became some of the first to bring home images of the Near East. Five of Joly de Lotbinière’s daguerreotypes were later published in Excursions daguerriennes : vues et monuments les plus remarquables de globe, one of the first books and certainly the premier volume to be illustrated by engravings made from daguerreotypes. Other engravings made from his daguerreotypes appeared in Panorama d’Égypte et de Nubie avec un Portrait de Mèhemet-Ali et un text orné de vignettes, published by Hector Horeau in Paris in 1841. Unfortunately, there is no record of Joly de Lotbinière pursuing his photography upon his return to Quebec. (Adopted excerpt from text). - The article is illustrated with engravings in the possession of the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal.