Educated as a mathematician, musician, and clergyman, Jones was an accomplished daguerreotypist before he was introduced to the calotype by William Henry Fox Talbot in 1845. Jones's pictures were taken primarily in Wales, England, Ireland, and the Mediterranean and often depicted complex compositions of ruins, landscape, and rustic architecture. To provide a sense of scale and human presence, he almost always included figures in his architectural views (here a lone individual leans against the archway). In this photograph Jones also alluded to the inevitable passage of time by contrasting the monumental arch in the foreground with the ruined arch in the distance.