Egypt – Small Tour

“No drawing I have seen conveys a proper idea of [the Sphinx] – best is an excellent photograph that Max [du Camp] has taken,” Gustave Flaubert noted in the journal of his Egyptian voyage (1849–1850). The reference evokes the image: Standing in front of the object, how could I blend out the images of it produced without cease since the first days of photography (Excursions daguerriennes, 1842)? I didn’t take a photograph there, but could not resist elsewhere. Yet the handful of photographs I salvaged during this uncommitted excursion did not answer the principal question.