A Shopkeeper and his Wares
CDV-format albumen print of a Cairo shop with the shopkeeper offering goods to veiled woman, by Ermé Désiré, Cairo, circa 1865. Card imprinted front "E. Désiré Phot." and on reverse "Photographie Parisienne / E. Désiré/ Photographe de S. A. le Roi d'Egypte & des Princes. / Caire (Egypte.)"
One of Désiré's claims to fame are his very unusual and impromptu Cairo street "snapshots." Breaking from the more common staged studio images of Egyptians, these photographs show Désiré venturing into Cairo's streets to record the inhabitants as they went about their daily routines. This images is a very rare example of one of Désiré's street studies in carte-de-visite format.
Images and text copyright © 2014 by Christopher Wahren Fine Photographs