Series·John Thomson, Cyprus 1878

Nicosia, Larnaca and Limassol

11 photographs · 1878

Site: Limassol

Eleven of John Thomson's 1878 negatives show the towns of Nicosia, Larnaca and Limassol. At Nicosia he photographed a gate in the city walls with its notice reading "Channel Squadron Gate", two men talking on the crumbling parapet, roads between low houses with palm trees and minarets, and a posed group of men beside a fluted column. At Larnaca he photographed the waterfront from the sea and from the quay, a street of houses with timber balconies, and the graveyard of St Lazarus, both a general view under the trees and a close view of carved tombstones. One negative shows the roofs of Limassol running down to the sea, with ships moored off the shore.

The negatives are held by the Wellcome Collection in London. Each item shows Wellcome's positive from the negative, the contact print made from it in 1981 and the glass plate. On several the 1981 print is the mirror image of the positive, and those items say so. Views of Limassol and Scala taken about 1880 are in the album of views.

Sources

Wellcome Collection, London. Catalogue records of John Thomson's Cyprus negatives and of the contact prints made from them in 1981.

Photographs: John Thomson, Wellcome Collection, London (Public domain)

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