The malleability of photography in Maison Bonfils’ Souvenirs d’Orient

This article examines the multiple versions of Maison Bonfils’ Souvenirs d’Orient, a family of photographic albums produced in nineteenth-century Beirut and depicting cities and monuments in the Middle East and North Africa. Through a comparative analysis of albums held at various institutions, including the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Canadian Centre for Architecture, and the Debbas Collection, the article reveals how variations in format, image sequencing, language, and the presence or absence of explanatory text catered to distinct audiences, from European tourists to local elites. Particular focus is given to the visual and textual representations of Baalbek, highlighting how different versions of the albums used photography and descriptive writing to shape viewer perception. Rather than treat Souvenirs d’Orient as a singular, static publication, this study argues for its conceptualisation as a flexible and malleable market-responsive object that participated in constructing and diversifying the visual language of Orientalism across time.