André-Victor-Alcide-Jules Itier

Jules Itier was among the first daguerreotypists to work in Egypt, and along with Joseph Philibert Girault de Prangey, he produced the earliest photographic record of the Island of Philae, pictured in the daguerreotype offered here.  Itier was a French customs inspector who served at postings in Senegal, Guyana, China, and the Pacific Islands.  Itier spent the months of December 1845 and January 1846 in Egypt, on his return trip home to France.  He sailed up the Nile River, and the Island of Philae represented the terminus of his trip.  The island’s principal structure, the massive temple devoted to the goddess Isis, was begun in 285 B. C. and completed in 305 A. D.  Philae would later be submerged by the Aswan High Dam, although the temple complex was re-assembled on nearby Agilika Island. 

Itier’s output of 120 daguerreotypes was rediscovered in 1978, and included images of Egypt, China, India, Senegal, Singapore, Ceylon, Borneo, and the Philippines.  Of this remarkable group, daguerreian scholar John Wood writes, ‘the thirty-seven he made in China in 1844 and the thirty-five he made in Egypt between December 1845 and January 1846 constitute his greatest photographic legacy’ (The Scenic Daguerreotype: Romanticism in Early Photography, p. 40).