Albumen print from wet collodion negative, from album Upper Egypt and Ethiopia , vol.
Frith often used a figure in his photographs to give a sense of scale. Frith's first trip up the Nile Valley took him as far as the Second Cataract and Abou Simbel. Victorian interest in the romance of archaeological excavations in Egypt was reaching a crescendo in the mid century as the great museums were established. Egypt and its environs were marketable commodities and Frith, the consummate businessman, was never very far behind Frith, the photographic missionary. He made photographic treks through the Himalayas and Kashmir, under appalling conditions, and relayed his experiences back to Britain in a series of articles he wrote for The British Journal of Photography.