Book Description

Few figures in 19th-century photography remain as elusive and intriguing as John Beasley Greene (1832-1856). Over the course of an exceptionally brief career, he produced a body of photographs that were publicly admired by his peers and continue to capture the imagination of contemporary audiences. Born in France to an American banker and trained in the medium of photography by Gustave Le Gray, he would be among those early practitioners drawn to Egypt hoping to unravel the mysteries inscribed on its ancient monuments. He traveled there twice, between 1853 and 1855, producing straightforward documentation of the hieroglyphic texts and monuments of most interest to archaeologists, as well as some of the most evocative landscape studies ever made in the Middle East. The pictorial economy of these views--all endless sweeps of desert sand and expansive, cloudless skies--is still stunning today. The work he made in Algeria is similarly divided between archaeological investigation and breathtaking visual studies. 'Signs and Wonders' introduces Greene's work to a new audience with 100 prints and a fascinating text by Corey Keller that reconsiders his photographic legacy, situation his work in the context of critical developments in both archaeology and photography.