01 Photograph, Marine Art - With Footnotes, #178

Felix Bonfils, (1831 - 1885)

Port of Beirut

Photograph

 20 x 27.5 cm

Private collection

The Port of Beirut  is the main port in Lebanon located on the eastern part of the Saint George Bay on Beirut's northern Mediterranean coast, west of the Beirut River. 

The name of Beirut Port has been mentioned since the fifteenth century BC in the mutual letters of the Pharaohs and the Phoenicians, and during the Roman Era, it was developed into a commercial and economic center. During the Omayyad Era, the Port of Beirut became the center for the First Arabic Fleet. As for the Crusaders Era, the Port of Beirut had an important role in the maritime trade between East and West. This role had been fortified during the Mameluke Era when it was turned into a commercial center visited by pilgrims of the Holy Lands. By the end of the 19th century, the current Port of Beirut had been founded. More on The Port of Beirut

Félix Adrien Bonfils (8 March 1831 – 1885) was a French photographer and writer who was active in the Middle East. He was one of the first commercial photographers to produce images of the Middle East on a large scale and amongst the first to employ a new method of colour photography, developed in 1880.

He was born in Saint-Hippolyte-du-Fort and died in Alès. Félix worked as a bookbinder but in 1860 he joined General d'Hautpoul's expedition to the Levant. Soon after returning from Lebanon he became a photographer.

In 1857, when his son fell ill, Félix remembered the green hills around Beirut and sent him there to recover, being accompanied by Félix's wife. The family moved to Beirut in 1867 where they opened a photographic studio called "Maison Bonfils".

Maison Bonfils produced thousands of photographs of the Middle East. He worked with both his wife and his son. Their studio became "F. Bonfils et Cie" in 1878. They photographed posed scenes, dressed up in Middle Eastern regalia, and also stories from the Bible. Bonfils took photographs in Lebanon, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Greece and Constantinople (now Istanbul). While Bonfils produced the vast majority of his work, it is known that his wife, Lydie also made some of the studio portraits, especially those of Middle Eastern women, who were more inclined to pose for a female photographer.


Bonfils was amongst the first photographers to employ the new technique of Photochrom, a photographic colour printing technique, developed in 1880.  Maison Bonfils was one of the most prolific studios in the Middle East in the late 19th-century. More on Félix Adrien Bonfils

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