Maxime DuCamp
French, 1822­1894
Middle Colossus, Abu Simbel, Nubia
1849/50
Developed-out salted paper print by 
Blanquart-Evrard from waxed paper negative
16.2 x 20.3 cm
Photography Department Purchase Fund, 1959.608/106

DuCamp, a writer, painter, and photographer, spent almost two years in Egypt with his friend, the novelist Gustave Flaubert. DuCamp’s photos are the first ever taken of the temple of Ramses II at Abu Simbel, near the headwaters of the Nile River. The huge statues of the temple were 65 feet high, and were buried in desert sand which had to be dug away so DuCamp could photograph them. The pharaoh Ramses II ruled Egypt around 1250 B.C. He is shown as the god Osiris; the snake, a cobra springing from his forehead, is a sign of the ruler’s power.