Bethlehem, Palestinian Territories (West Bank), 3 April 1862 Albumen print, 228 x 290 mm
The religious motivations underpinning the tour made visiting key sites in the Holy Land, such as Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, of great importance to the prince. In order to capture this important view of the town, Bedford climbed onto a roof with all his camera equipment and glass negatives. This is one of the few examples in the series where we can definitely see subjects who have not been posed by the photographer. The crowd in the busy square are active and out of focus, highlighting the difficulty Bedford faced with the constraints of the photographic medium. This led to people and donkey ‘ghosts’ moving through the scene, and, unusually, a real ‘slice-of-life’ view of this moment in time.
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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
