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Sir William de Wiveleslie Abney was born July 24, 1893 in Derbyshire, England. He attended the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich and joined the Royal Engineers in 1861 including some time in India. In 1871 he assisted at the Royal School of Military Engineering at Chatham in the telegraphy department and eventually went on to teach chemistry and photography among other subjects. His extensive work, developments and writings in photography, including Instruction in Photography became very popular and in 1874 he was made assistant instructor of the school of chemistry and photography at Chatham which was formerly part of the school of electricity. Abney was chosen to photograph and observe the transit of Venus across the Sun from Egypt. While in Egypt Abney and his assistants photographed famous landmarks and monuments and in 1876 Abney published Thebes and its Five Great Temples, containing forty of his photographs from Egypt. Upon his return to England Abney left Chatham to become involved with the Department of Science and Art and later the Board of Education at South Kensington. He retired form this position in 1903 and became an advisory council member for education in the war office. He was the president of the Royal Photographic Society for multiple years in 1892-1894, 1896, 1903 and 1905 and continued to experiment and lecture his photographic discoveries until his death on December 2, 1920.

G. Lekegian started his work as a watercolor artist in Constantinople in 1880. He eventually moved to Cairo, Egypt to set up a photograph studio in 1887 where Armenians managed a majority of the early photograph industry. Lekegian took photographs that were popular with the tourist industry including views of the Pyramids and Luxor temples. He also took photographs of daily life and people in the region. He won the Gold Medal at the International Photography Exhibition in Paris in 1892 and the Grand Prize at the International Exhibition in Chicago in 1893. Lekegian would eventually work as the official photographer for Egypt's British Army. Around 1920 Lekegian's studio probably closed down.