Cairo to Constantinople, The Queen’s Gallery - exhibition review
The prints displayed here tell the story of the four-month tour of the Middle East in 1862 by the 21-year-old Prince of Wales (the future Edward VII), sent by his mother, Queen Victoria, to learn about the region.
In these pictures, taken by the queen’s favourite photographer, Francis Bedford, the suave prince is transformed by his straw hat, his beard and the heat as he travels between Greece, the Holy Land, Syria, Turkey and Egypt.
Bedford suffered in his makeshift darkroom but produced often perfect results. Travelling with tents by horse and boat, the prince and his aristocratic friends languished and watched the photographer at work. Some of his pictures show attendants, such as the Albanians with their long guns; another shows a group of picnickers at the pyramids.
Bedford’s pictures of political and religious meetings contrast with his wonderful shots of buildings and ruins, which reveal his architectural background. His skilful compositions are often framed from high on minarets and domes and display his attraction to the sculptural forms of mosques and churches, palaces, tombs and houses of wood and stone.
As we look we are reminded of the beauty and destruction in the region, and of the similarities between past and present.
Until February 22 (020 7766 7340, royalcollection.org.uk)
