The Hypostyle Hall of the Temple of Amon, Karnak

Gustave Le Gray was not the first photographer to make images of Egypt's Hypostyle Hall in Karnak--his former student John Beasly Greene was there over a decade before him--but his images are by far the most dramatic. When arranging this photograph, Le Gray waited until a diagonal pattern of light and shadow cut across the center of the composition, receding to the fallen column at the rear. The clarity with which he recorded the hieroglyphics on the temple's forty-five-foot tall columns is a testament to his technical expertise.