ENTER EXHIBITION DISCOVER MORE ABOUT Sights of Wonder is an online exhibition of photographs by Francis Bedford (1815-1894) taken during a royal tour to the eastern Mediterranean region in 1862. It was curated by ten MA Art History and Curating students of the 2019/20 cohort at the University of Birmingham, in partnership with the Royal Collection Trust and the Barber Institute of Fine Arts.
Francis Bedford, The Sphinx, the Great Pyramid and two lesser Pyramids, Ghizeh
Giza, Egypt, 4 March 1862. Albumen print, 231 x 295 mm
Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, II 2020
Francis Bedford, The Sphinx, the Great Pyramid and two lesser Pyramids, Ghizeh
Giza, Egypt, 4 March 1862. Albumen print, 231 x 295 mm
Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, II 2020

Below is a video provided by the Royal Collection Trust which explains the wet collodion photographic process used by Francis Bedford while touring with the prince. As a process it had only been invented in the 1850s, just over 10 years before it was used by Bedford during the Royal Tour with such skill