Félix Bonfils was a French photographer and writer who was active in the Middle East. He learned photographic technique and heliogravure from Niepce de Saint Victor (1805–1870). Between 1861 and 1864, he made several trips to Lebanon, where he settled permanently in 1867 with his wife Marie-Lydie Cabanis (1837–1918). That same year, Bonfils opened a studio in Beirut, which would exist for over 70 years. It was established to provide tourists and travellers with a wide range of photographs of Lebanon, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Greece and Constantinople (Pouillon, 2012, pp. 129–130).

Arnaudiès, A. (2022). L’Orient des Bonfils 1867–1918. Soleb.

Pouillon, F. (2012). Bonfils, Félix. In: Pouillon, F., Dictionnaire des orientalistes de langue française. Paris: Karthala, pp. 129–130.