First Traveler Photographers?

Maxime Du Camp is a French photographer that decided to travel to different locations in North Africa and the Middle East. Du Camp and Gustave Flaubert both documented their travels, but Du Camp was the first pure documentarian to also produce a photographic project. Some historians say Du Camp was the first travel photographer and his work titled: Egypte, Nubie, Palestine, Syrie is a series covering the travels. As historians quotes, “The birth of travel photography” began from these pairs of writers, especially Du Camp. With a wooden Calotype camera and tripod, to ensure that images came out properly, Du Camp set out to personally take in the wonders of the world. Moreover, the film Du Camp used created an effect that produced black & white images. The process of developing these photos was intensely grueling due to the conditions of the Sahara desert, jugs of chemicals would have to accompany Du Camp everywhere. For the trip Du Camp took along his wooden Calotype camera and a tripod. The Calotype wasn’t in popular demand due to the patent of the calotype being expensive. Du Camp wasn't shy of opening up his wallet and he saw the potential of using a calotype over other cameras at the time, his camera was relatively small and can be easily carried around. Furthermore, the high-quality writing paper as the media for its negatives did help Du Camp create multiple copies of the images from his travel. Which he was able to bring back and share with the world what these Egypt monuments looked like in 1852.