1398
were typically closely linked. With the advent of pho-
tography, tourists, with the help of the Camera Lucida,
or from other optical devices commonly photographed
monuments and anything of interest, including William
Henry Fox Talbot as he did during his 1830s travels.
By the mid 19th century this kind of travel was well
established, however, diffi culties with using cameras
prevented most travellers and novice photographers
to have to purchase images from independent profes-
sional travelling photographers. At the same time large
commercial photographers started to see an important
market in photographing distant or exotic places. Not
surprisingly, the locations appearing in early travel
photography were similar or the same places considered
worthwhile to “grand tour” travellers such as Italy and
Greece for the classical travellers and the Holy land and
the Middle East for the biblical and exotic travellers.
During the19th, century new means of transporta-
tion allowed travelling large distances to be made with
greater speed and comfort. Photography, since the
mid 19th century was an important travel companion.
Coincidentally, the train and camera were invented
almost at the same time, and technological progress in
photography paralleled the growth of railway lines in
most developed countries, suggesting perhaps a symbi-
otic relationship. Both however answered the needs of
industrial society and middle class aspirations. In the
late 19th century, lighter cameras and dry plates, made
travel photography more widely available to the well-
heeled traveller and to middle classes. From the 1890s
onward, travel was to be one of the most important
genres for photography.
Mid-19th century travel photographs were mainly
produced by professionals such as Francis Firth, An-
tonio Beato, Felix Bonfi ls and the Zangaki brothers
in the Middle East; the Bisson brothers for the alpine
mountains; the Alinary brothers in Italy; Charles Clif-
ford or J. Laurent in Spain, John Bourke in India, Fe-
lice Beato in China and Japan, Carleton Watkins and
Eadweard Muibridge in the North-American west or
Cunha Moraes in Portuguese Western Africa. These
professional photographers travelled on photographic
expeditions using whatever transportation they could
to take pictures. Then, they produced their images and
sold them in both small and large formats, as well as in
stereograms. Generally the images taken on these trips
were for those who could not travel, often serving as a
substitute for travelling.
Often travellers would carry their photographic sou-
venirs with them when they returned home. These were
typically studio portraits that had been taken abroad
and served as proof of travel. Also, these images were
representative of affl uent classes and linked the owners
to high society as represented by the fashionable pho-
tographer. This idea of having one’s likeness taken at a
major travel destinations came early in History of Pho-
tography. Daguerreotypists had been active at Niagara
Falls since the late 1840s where they targeted the tourists
who travelled to this important destination in American.
Many 19th Century people had their picture taken for
the fi rst time at other vacation or tourist destinations as
well like beach or other tourist spots.
Even though there were great diffi culties involved
in travelling and photographing with mid 19th cntury
cameras and processed, there were quite a few amateurs
among the travelling photographers such as George Moir
(1800–1870), a founding member of the Edinburgh
Callotype Club, college professor and latter Sheriff
of Ross-shire, and photographer of Ghent; Sir James
Dunlop (1830–1858), photographed Malta and Italy in
the course of a “Grand tour” in the late 1840s; another
Scot, Robert McPherson (1811–1872) photographed
Rome and its surroundings, as did Giacomo Caneva
(1813?–1865) from Padua. Since the 1850s every major
European country had its gallery of amateur travelling
photographers, including the Germans even if they
seemed to be less active than others.
Later, local photographers understood the potential
of the tourist market selling views and images of local
or indigenous people to travellers. Even if this was a
worldwide practice, Samuel Bourne took a good part
these types of images especially in India, the most strik-
ing example of tourist photography however came from
photographer Christiano Júnior, who produced and sold
studio pictures of slaves as a souvenir to those visiting
Brazil. Even ambulant photographers understood the
new market potential, placing themselves close to main
tourist attractions in order to make visitors “instant”
photographs.
With late 19th century technical progresses in pho-
tography there was a bigger place for one of the most
popular photo motivations, travel. Newer cameras that
were smaller in size and easier to operate were created
as were dry plates, which did not needed to be sensi-
tised before exposure, making travelling with a camera
painless. Travelling itself also became much easier
as trains were able to go farther distances in smaller
amounts of time, and because of this the travel industry
was developing, catering not only to the upper classes,
but to a middle class as well, which began to take part
in tourism.
It the late 19th century, the photographic industry
saw the emergence of cameras that were smaller and
lighter which made hand held exposures possible. This
innovation created a new market potential for tourist
photography. This practice was compatible with not
only simpler and cheaper Kodaks, but also for the more
expensive hand cameras like Ernemman; Voigtlander;
Contessa and Goerz. Furthermore, some inventors even
developed a special type of camera for the tourist mar-