The Tour of the Middle East, 1862

In 1862, Bedford accompanied the Prince of Wales as official photographer on a five-month long tour of Egypt and the Holy Land. Although Bedford is best known for these photographs, they are almost completely atypical of his work as a whole. Bedford not only had to deal with a radically different climate and landscape but he also had to follow a prescribed itinerary with very little flexibility in the choice of sites and scenery. The subjects of the photographs therefore illustrate the influence of a patron and, since the patron was the heir to the throne, the interests of the British government as well. Although Queen Victoria characterized the tour as educational, the photographs indicate an underlying yet persistent political theme. Since European travel to Egypt and the Holy Land was far from novel by 1862, the political component is the major element that separates Bedford’s photographs from those of his predecessors. The photographs reflect British interests in the Druze-Maronite conflict of 1860, the Crimean War, and the transfer of the Ionian Islands to Greece. These sites were not on the typical tourist route; they were visited by the Prince and documented by Bedford because of their relevance to Britain.