فيليكس بونفيس Félix Bonfils
(بالفرنسية: Félix Bonfils)
معلومات شخصية
الميلاد	8 مارس 1831 سان إيبوليت دي فور، فرنسا
الوفاة	9 أبريل 1885 (عن عمر ناهز 54 عاماً) أليس، فرنسا
الجنسية	فرنسي
الحياة العملية
المهنة	مصور فوتوغرافي
اللغات	الفرنسية[1]
سنوات النشاط	من سنة 1867 إلى وفاته.
مجال العمل	تصوير
سبب الشهرة	بواكير التصوير الفوتوغرافي في المنطقة العربية.

فيليكس بونفيس (بالفرنسية: Félix Bonfils) ـ (8 مارس 1831 ـ 1885) هو مصور فوتوغرافي وكاتب فرنسي، عمل في المنطقة العربية، وافتتح في سنة 1867 استديو تصوير في بيروت سماه “دار بونفيس” (بالفرنسية: Maison Bonfils).^[2][3] التقط بونفيس والعاملون معه آلاف الصور الفوتوغرافية في المنطقة العربية (لبنان ومصر وفلسطين وسوريا) وتركيا واليونان،^[2] وقد افتتح بونفيس فيما بعد استديو تصوير في مسقط رأسه أليس في فرنسا.

مؤلفاته

• العمارة القديمة (بالفرنسية: Architecture Antique): ألبوم نُشر سنة 1872.
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• Félix Bonfils

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  Félix Bonfils
  Félix Bonfils, self-portrait
  Born	Félix Adrien Bonfils 8 March 1831 Saint-Hippolyte-du-Fort, France
  Died	9 April 1885 (aged 54) Alès, France
  Nationality	French
  Occupation	Photographer and publisher
  Years active	especially from 1867 to his death
  Known for	early Middle East photography
  Spouse(s)	Marie-Lydie Cabanis (1837-1918) (m. 1857)

  Félix Adrien Bonfils (8 March 1831 – 1885) was a French photographer and writer who was active in the Middle East. He was one of the first commercial photographers to produce images of the Middle East on a large scale and amongst the first to employ a new method of colour photography, developed in 1880.

  Life and career

  He was born in Saint-Hippolyte-du-Fort and died in Alès. Félix worked as a bookbinder but in 1860 he joined General d’Hautpoul’s expedition to the Levant. Soon after returning from Lebanon he became a photographer.

  In 1857, he married Marie-Lydie Cabanis. When his son, Adrien, fell ill, Félix remembered the green hills around Beirut and sent him there to recover, being accompanied by Félix’s wife.^[1] The family moved to Beirut in 1867 where they opened a photographic studio called “Maison Bonfils”.^[2][3]

  Maison Bonfils produced thousands of photographs of the Middle East. He worked with both his wife and his son. Their studio became “F. Bonfils et Cie” in 1878. They photographed posed scenes, dressed up in Middle Eastern regalia, and also stories from the Bible.^[2] Bonfils took photographs in Lebanon, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Greece and Constantinople (now Istanbul).^[3] While Bonfils produced the vast majority of his work, it is known that his wife, Lydie also made some of the studio portraits, especially those of Middle Eastern women, who were more inclined to pose for a female photographer.^[4]

  Bonfils was amongst the first photographers to employ the new technique of Photochrom, a photographic colour printing technique, developed in 1880. ^[5] Maison Bonfils was one of the most prolific studios in the Middle East in the late 19th-century. ^[6]

  Work

  

  Cover of Souvenirs d’Orient, 1878 by Félix Bonfils

  After settling in the Near East, Bonfils took some panoramic photographs of Constantinople and Damascus.^[7] His work became well known among the tourists that travelled to those countries because they bought photographs as souvenirs. In 1872 he published the album Architecture Antique (by Ducher press) after presenting some of his pictures to the Société française de photographie. He later re-opened a studio in Alès (France) from which he would publish Souvenirs d’Orient; his best-known work. ^[8]

  Select list of publications

  • Bonfils, F., Architecture antique : Égypte, Grèce, Asie Mineure, 1872
  • Bonfils, F., Catalogue de vues photographiques de l’Orient, 1876
  • Bonfils, F., Souvenirs d’Orient, 1878
  • Bonfils, F. (with Adrien & Lydie Bonfils), Photographs of the Middle East, circa 1860s-1900s

  Selected photographs

  • 

    Bedouin Violin Players, c. 1880

  • 

    Guardian of the Tomb and his family, c.1880

  • 

    Women of Siloé, Palestine, c. 1880

  • 

    Road to Bethlehem, c. 1880

  • 

    Arab man with a pipe, 1880s

  • 

    Well of St. Mary, Nazareth, 1880s

  • 

    Bedouin Chief of Palmyra, photochrom, 1880s

  • 

    Bedouin mothers carrying their children, photochrom, 1880s

  • 

    Chief of the Bedouin shepherds, 1880s

  • 

    Woman from Nablus, between 1867 and 1885

  See also

  • History of Photography
  • List of Orientalist artists
  • Orientalism

  
  بيروت (حوالى 1880)

  

  القدس

  

  

  

  

  

  على سفح الاهرام

  

  

  References

  

  عازفا ربابة في البادية السورية (حوالى 1880)

  قبر صلاح الدين الايوبي في دمشق

  

  

  1. ^ Hannavy, J., Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography, Routledge, 2013, p. 173
  2. ^ Jump up to:^a b “Aerial Panoramic View of Beirut”. World Digital Library. Retrieved 21 January 2013.
  3. ^ Jump up to:^a b Szegedy-Maszak, Andrew (May–June 2001). “The Genius of Félix Bonfils”. Archaeology. 54 (3).
  4. ^ Hannavy, J., Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography, Routledge, 2013, p. 174
  5. ^ Farbige Reise, Paris bibliothèques, 2009, p. 41
  6. ^ Vogelsang-Eastwood, G., For Modesty’s Sake? Barjesteh, Meeuwes & Company, 1996, p. 163
  7. ^ “Collections Search Center, Smithsonian Institution”. Collections.si.edu. Retrieved 20 October 2013.
  8. ^ Hannavy, J., Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography, Routledge, 2013, p. 173

  External links

  Wikimedia Commons has media related to Félix Bonfils.

  • Works by or about Félix Bonfils at Internet Archive
  • Canadian Centre for Architecture; Collections Online, s.v. “Bonfils, Félix”, cited 31 January 2011
  • Union List of Artists Names, s.v. “Bonfils, Félix”, cited 6 February 2006
  • Images by Bonfils
  • The Bonfils Story: A Legacy Of Light
  • Collection of photos by Bonfils