Jérusalem, Birket-Hammam-Setty-Mariam

Art Historical Context

Step into the sun-drenched ruins of 19th-century Jerusalem with Auguste Salzmann's *Jérusalem, Bir-Hammam-Setty-Mariam* (1854), a salted paper print from a paper negative. Captured during Salzmann's pioneering expedition to the Holy Land, this image portrays the ancient Birket Hammam Setty Mariam—a historic pool amid weathered architecture—evoking the timeless allure of biblical landscapes. The soft, textured tones of the salted paper process lend an ethereal quality, as if peering through time at forgotten grandeur. This photograph marks a milestone in early photography's quest to document the world's sacred sites. Salzmann, a French surgeon-turned-photographer, joined a scholarly mission in 1853–54 to record Jerusalem's monuments before modern changes obscured them. Printed by Louis-Désiré Blanquart-Évrard at his innovative Lille studio—the first dedicated photographic printing house—the work exemplifies the calotype technique's poetic detail from paper negatives, prized for its artistic warmth over mechanical precision. Housed in The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Gilman Collection, this 23.1 x 33.1 cm print invites reflection on cultural heritage, bridging 19th-century exploration with enduring architectural mysteries. A testament to photography's power to preserve vanishing ruins, it reminds us how light can immortalize stone.

About the Artist

Auguste Salzmann|Imprimerie photographique de Blanquart-Évrard, à Lille · 1824–1872

Born 15 april 1824. Salzmann travelled to Palestine in 1850 to 1851 as a draughtsman for a French expedition to the East. Salzmann returned to Paris, France in 1851 and learned photography which he used as an aid to his archaeological research. In 1853 Salzmann was commissioned by the Ministry of Public Instruction to visit Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and the islands of the Archipelago to photograph ...