32 Amazing Vintage Photos of Egyptians From the 1870s

These early photographs were taken by Émile Béchard in Cairo, Egypt during the 1870s. Portraits include ‘types’ such as shopkeepers, street merchants and dancers.

Béchard was active in Cairo from 1869 until 1880 where he specialized in photographing Egyptian subjects in an orientalist style. The name H. Bechard appears scratched into the negatives of a number of large format prints produced in Egypt in the 1870s.

Émile Béchard operated a studio during the same period in the Esbekiah Gardens in Cairo along with Hippolyte Delie and who won a gold medal at the International Exhibition of 1878 in Paris. It is believed that Delie was an alternate name used by Emile’s brother Hippolyte.