Mavi Boncuk |
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First announcement made in Ottoman territory of the discovery of photography; The article appeared in issue 186 of the daily Takvim-i Vekayi, October 28, 1839 (19 Şaban 1255). © Engin Özendes Collection.
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Based on a photograph by Frédéric Goupil-Fesquet, Two Women of Izmir (Smyrna), 1839. Published in Voyage d'Horace Vernet en Orient, Paris, 1843. The woman on the left wears contemporary clothing; the one on the right, a traditional costume. © Engin Özendes Collection.
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Félix Bonfils, Mersin, around 1870. © Collection Engin Özendes.
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James Robertson, Sainte-Sophie, 1853. © Collection Engin Özendes.
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Sébah & Joaillier, Porte de l'imaret de Sainte-Sophie, 1890. © Collection Engin Özendes.
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Abdullah Frères, Portrait, circa 1880. © Collection Engin Özendes.
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Abdullah Frères, Friday procession at the Yildiz mosque, circa 1880. © Collection Engin Özendes.
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Ali Sami Aközer, Servili Ahmed Emin, 1886. © Collection Engin Özendes.
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Arif Hikmet Koyunoğlu, Street vendor in a street of Eyüp, 1905. © Collection Engin Özendes.
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Pascal Sébah (Istanbul, 1823 - Istanbul, June 15, 1886)
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Pascal Sébah, The Popular Costumes of Turkey in 1873, cover. © Engin Özendes Collection.
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"Pascal Sébah, advertisement published in the 1881 edition of The Ottoman Indicator, an almanac-directory of commerce, industry, administration and the judiciary. © Engin Özendes Collection.
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© Engin Özendes Collection.
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Photographic visiting card of Basile Kargopoulo, 1860. © Collection Engin Özendes.
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Sophie Makariou[*]
Photography under the Ottoman Empire
Engin Özendes, Photography historian | Exhibition curator
At the time of the invention of photography, the Ottoman Empire was drawing to a close. The Ottoman administrators, who blamed the decline on the Empire's inability to adapt to the Western world, brought in many scholars from Europe. They gave them responsibilities in the military, economic and social affairs of the state. Mediatized by them, the city of Istanbul - then called Constantinople - became the center of attention.
The discovery of photography in the Ottoman press
One autumn morning, opening the pages of Takvim-i Vekayi - a newspaper published in Istanbul in Turkish, Arabic, French, Greek and Armenian - the Ottomans heard of a strange invention (October 28, 1839, no 186):
Fig. 1: The daily Takvim-i Vekayi
"This is the translation of an article which appeared in several daily newspapers in Europe: after long research, a man invented a particular art which creates a curious mirror effect. This talented Frenchman named Daguerre captured the image of objects reflected in sunlight using various artistic and scientific processes. This wonder is the result of twenty years of research. The invention was very successful and aroused universal admiration.
Its principle is as follows: the reflected image of an object passes through a glass in front of a box, which can be large or small, and which is closed to all other light. The image is then reconstructed in the box. A chemical preparation allows the image visible inside the box to be projected onto a surface. After much experimentation, Daguerre developed a mixture based on silver iodide. A copper plate is held for a few seconds over the iodine vapor before being placed in the box for five minutes, while the image of the scene passes through the glass. If we think of all the images we would like to keep, we can imagine the value of this invention. How strange that by the time Daguerre made this discovery, the Englishman Talbot used sunlight in such a way. Daguerre, however, managed to record footage before him. "(Fig. 1)
A few years later, another newspaper, Ceride-i Havadis, in turn described this strange invention (August 15, 1841, no 47):
"... Monsieur Daguerre has now invented the daguerreotype, which is a way of drawing with light using a device. In a very short period of time, it is possible to record the image of a scene or an army on a plate. If this scene is a city, you can recognize all the buildings and even see the leaves of the trees in a garden. If the scene represents an army, it is said, down to the beard hair of the soldiers. "
Lifestyles fixed by photography
The East, as Westerners imagined it, was at the time a place of dreams depicted in engravings inspired by real experiences or corresponding to a fictitious idealization. Very different from the West in its atmosphere, this unknown territory aroused curiosity.
At that time, with Istanbul having many wooden houses, hardly a day went by without a fire, and the firefighters - who go by the name of tulumbaci - had to be ready to respond at any time. These brave men, who rushed in singing, water pumps on their shoulders, dressed in short pants and high-cut shirts, were striking and picturesque in their appearance.
Each neighborhood had its own café, sometimes performing shadow theater scenes or plays from the popular theater, ortaoyunu. The rest of the time, customers played various games, chatted or read.
The mevlevi lodges were complexes made up of rooms intended for the lodging of the dervishes and rooms which they used for prayer and for their swirling dances. The Galata Lodge, more comfortable to visit for foreigners traveling to Istanbul, was featured on all tourist routes.
Cemeteries were also places to walk. By the light of the lamps, in the evening, Muslims and Christians gathered there, and all kinds of hawkers sold their wares there, making these places look like fairgrounds. The concert given in the Tepebaşi cemetery by a French military orchestra returning from the Crimean War in 1855 has long been talked about in Péra.
Fig. 2: Pascal Sébah, Caïque, 1870.
© Engin Özendes Collection.
Before the construction of the Golden Horn bridges, the crossing between Pera and Istanbul was done using caiques, long, narrow boats that were the main form of transportation in this water-surrounded city. In fine weather, embassies moved to their summer residences on the shores of the Bosphorus, and caique trips through the Strait were sometimes a source of fear for foreigners (Fig. 2).
If we used caiques on water, on land we traveled in horse-drawn carriages: phaetons in summer and closed in winter. But these cars were too wide for the narrow city streets; in this case, the only possible means of transport for women was the sedan chair.
Traveling photographers
Improvements in transportation and the onset of organized tourism had an unexpected effect on art. For centuries, travel had been the privilege of adventurers, artists, archaeologists or writers who had personal fortunes or were funded by wealthy patrons. Now, in the Mediterranean, steamboats allowed the middle classes to travel to distant countries. The invention of photography and the improvement of transport conditions helped to attract more and more travelers to the charms of the Orient. The first tourists mainly photographed landscapes.
Gaspard-Pierre-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière (Frauenfeld, 1798 - Paris, 1865).
In November 1839, Lotbinière attempted to make daguerreotypes in Egypt, then brought back images from Palestine, Syria and Turkey. Five of them appear in an album titled Excursions daguerriennes, Sights and Most Remarkable Monuments of the Globe (1840-1844), which is the first book of photographs published in the world.
Fig. 3: Based on a photograph by Frédéric Goupil-Fesquet, Two Women of Izmir (Smyrna), 1839.
Published in Voyage d´Horace Vernet en Orient, Paris, 1843.
The woman on the left wears contemporary clothes; the one on the right, a traditional costume.
© Engin Özendes Collection.
Also taking part in this photographic expedition, which left Marseille in October 1839, the French painter Horace Vernet (Paris, June 30, 1789 - Paris, January 17, 1863) accompanied by his nephew Charles-Marie Bouton (Paris, 1781 - Paris, 1853) and the daguerreotypist Frédéric-Auguste Antoine Goupil-Fesquet (1817–1878). After taking some photos in Egypt and the Middle East, they arrived in Izmir (Smyrna) on February 9, 1840 (Fig. 3).
At the request of Lalande, the captain of the Jena, Fesquet organized on February 13 a presentation of daguerreotypes which met with some success. Disembarking in Istanbul on February 16, Fesquet takes photographs of the city under the snow.
Maxime du Camp (Paris, 1822 - Baden-Baden, 1894), arrived in Izmir in May 1843, visited the outskirts of the city, but also Ephesus from where he reached Istanbul. His book, illustrated with images taken during this trip, published in Paris in 1848, by the publisher Bertrand, under the title Souvenirs et landscapes d'Orient: Smyrna, Ephesus, Magnesia, Constantinople, Scio.
During a trip to the Middle East between 1842 and 1844, Philibert-Joseph Girault de Prangey (Langres, October 20, 1804 - Courcelles-Val-d´Esnoms, December 7, 1892) photographed buildings, monuments and landscapes. Back in France, he used these images to make watercolor lithographs. These images were brought together in a book entitled Monuments and Landscapes of the Orient: Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, Turkey, etc. Lithographs executed in color after his watercolors.
Carlo Naya (Tronzano Vercellese, August 2, 1816 - Venice, May 30, 1882) arrived in Istanbul in 1845, accompanied by his brother Giovanni. They worked there for years. When his brother died in 1857, Carlo left Istanbul and returned to Italy where he settled in Venice.
In 1853-1854, Pierre Trémaux (Charrecey, July 20, 1818 - Tournus, March 12, 1895) produced calotypes of all kinds of ancient and contemporary buildings in Greece, Anatolia, Syria, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia.
John Shaw Smith (1811-1873), Irish aristocrat and amateur aristocrat, took an image of Pera in 1852. To our knowledge, he is the first to associate two negatives.
On the occasion of scientific missions, Ernest de Caranza (1837-1863) visited Istanbul in 1839 and 1852, when he opened a photography studio. He put together an album of fifty-five photographs, which he offered to the Palace; during his stay, he received the title of "official photographer of the Sultan". He was decorated with the 5th class Medjidie medal.
Alfred-Nicolas Normand (Paris, June 1, 1822 - Paris, March 9, 1909) brought back photographs of Istanbul in 1852 and 1887.
Alphonse de Moustier, member of the Court of Auditors and relative of the Marquis de Moustier (1817-1869), French Ambassador to Turkey, obtained in 1862 the imperial authorization of the Ottoman government to take photographs throughout Anatolia.
Félix Bonfils, Mersin, around 1870. © Collection Engin Özendes.
Fig. 4: Félix Bonfils, Mersin, around 1870.
© Engin Özendes Collection.
Having left France with his family to come to Beirut in 1867, Félix Bonfils (Saint-Hippolyte-du-Fort, March 8, 1831 - Alès, 1885) opened a photographic studio there. In the 1870s he took photographs in Alexandria, Cairo and throughout Greece, the Aegean Islands, Istanbul, Ephesus, Izmir, Bergamo and Antioch (Fig. 4).
Adrien Bonfils (1861-1929) joined his father in 1878. Mother, father and son collaborated in the development of photo albums that illustrated life in the Near East or depicted landscapes and archaeological sites. After Félix's death, Adrien pursued a career as a photographer for more than ten years with his mother, Marie-Lydie Cabanis (1837-1918).
Camille Rogier (1810-1896), Gérard de Nerval (1808-1855), Jules Derain, Jakob August Lorent (1813-1884), Claude-Marie Ferrier (1811-1889), Francis Frith (1822-1898), Jules Delbet ( 1836-1906), Pierre Loti (1850-1923), Francis Bedford (1816-1894), Frank Mason Good (1839-1928), Gustave Fougères (1863-1927), David George Hogart (1862-1927), Captain Barry , Charles-Édouard Jeanneret known as “Le Corbusier” (1887-1965) and Albert Kahn (1860-1940) are also the actors of this history of photography in Ottoman soil.
The world's first war photographs
Fig. 5: James Robertson, Sainte-Sophie, 1853.
© Engin Özendes Collection.
In 1853, the British government commissioned Roger Fenton (March 1819 - August 8, 1869) to take photographs of the war in the Crimea, where Britain and France supported the Ottomans against the Russians. In 1855, Fenton thus took 360 photographs, which are the first images of war in the world. Stricken with cholera, he returned to Great Britain.
In August 1855, James Robertson (1813 - April 1888), who worked as an engraver at the Imperial Mint and at the same time took pictures of Istanbul, was sent to the Crimea to replace Fenton. He made more than 60 photographs of the war, which was drawing to a close. After the 1850s, in collaboration with Felice Beato (1825-1907), he carried out a documentary architectural survey of Istanbul (Fig. 5).
Photography and religion
Traditionally, members of the Muslim community chose one of three careers that promised secure and regular salaries: the military, the civil service, or religious engagement, as ulemas (scholarly specialists in canon law). Few opted for commerce, which was an activity not only risky, but also despised by sophisticated people. Trade was therefore largely abandoned to the Christian and Jewish communities.
In the Qur'an, there is no verse that prohibits the performance. What Islam forbids is not figuration, but the worship of figures. However, although this is not a strictly Qur'anic precept, some hadiths[1] consider that people who represent living beings are trying to equal the Creator God.
Likewise, representation is prohibited among Jews. “Thou shalt not make for yourself any carved image, nothing resembling what is in the heavens above, or on the earth, here below, or in the waters, below the earth. You will not bow down to these gods and you will not serve them, for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God ... ”(Exodus 20: 4-5, translated from the Bible School of Jerusalem).
The introduction of photography to Ottoman soil was therefore initially the work of Christian, Armenian and Greek travelers. Towards the end of the 19th century, however, some Levantines also learned about the practice.
The first local studios
Fig. 6: Sébah & Joaillier, Porte de l'imaret de Sainte-Sophie, 1890.
© Engin Özendes Collection.
The first Western travelers to the Near East first photographed their surroundings, but gradually they incorporated characters into it. By learning about the Islamic world, they overcame their shyness and became more interested in street scenes. Over time, the proliferation of human representations will encourage the emergence of photographic studios and the development of portraiture.
The Grand'Rue de Péra was, by its style, the westernmost artery of the imperial capital. It is therefore this district which, in the 1850s, will welcome this novelty that is the profession of photographer.
Basile Kargopoulo (1826-1886), a photographer of Greek origin, opened a studio in Pera in 1850. He was instrumental in the production of Istanbul panoramas and documentary city images. In addition, he had a rich wardrobe which allowed young people, idle and enthusiastic, to disguise themselves to be photographed. He obtained from Sultan Abdülhamid the title of photographer to His Imperial Majesty.
Pascal Sébah (Istanbul, 1823 - Istanbul, June 25, 1886) opened in 1857 a studio called El Chark Société Photographique, and towards the end of 1873 he opened a second one next to the famous Shepard Hotel in Cairo. Pascal Sébah took images of Istanbul, Bursa (Bush), Cairo and the Middle East. In 1888, his son, Jean-Pascal Sébah (1872-1947), joined forces through his uncle Cosmi (? -1896) with Policarpe Joaillier (1848-1904), a photographer based in Istanbul. Their studio, known as Sébah & Joaillier, experienced a golden age at this time (Fig. 6).
The constantly increasing foreign visitors ordered images of city panoramas, scenes from everyday life and ordinary people from catalogs. Among the endless variety of photographs, the most popular were those of oriental women and harems, masterfully created in the Sébah & Joaillier studio. They carried titles like Turkish Woman, Turkish Girl or Muslim Woman, but, in reality, a Muslim could not pose in front of an objective under pain of sanctions on behalf of the Ottoman administrators. The models were therefore generally chosen from among the women working in the entertainment establishments of Pera. Sometimes they were visiting Western ladies, donning an oriental costume for the occasion. The difficulty of finding female models led some photographers to use men disguised as women (Fig. 7).
Abdullah Frères, Portrait, circa 1880. © Collection Engin Özendes.
Fig. 7: Abdullah Frères, Portrait, circa 1880.
Because it was difficult to find female models willing to pose for photographs of Muslim women sold to tourists, men were sometimes called in to disguise themselves for the occasion. However, despite the veil, they often betray each other through their posture as well as their hands and feet.
© Engin Özendes Collection.
Fig. 8: Abdullah Frères, Friday procession at the Yildiz mosque, circa 1880.
© Engin Özendes Collection.
Kevork (1839-1918), who returned from Venice in 1858 with his brothers Viçen (1820-1902) and Hovsep (1830-1908), took over the studio of the German chemist and daguerreotypist Rabach, who wanted to return to his country. They opened the Abdullah Frères studio. When, in 1863, they painted the portrait of Sultan Abdülaziz (r. 1861-1876), they obtained the title of photographers of His Imperial Majesty, which marked the beginning of their ascension. In 1886, they opened a branch in Cairo, which was very active for nine years and was successful before closing in 1895. Armenian families, established in different parts of the Empire, sent their children to Istanbul to be there. learn a trade. These young people worked as apprentices in the studios of Armenian photographers, such as, in particular, that of the Abdullah brothers. The profession of photographer will thus become an Armenian quasi-monopoly (Fig. 8).
Tancrède R. Dumas (1830-1905), who had been working in Beirut since 1860, arrived in Istanbul in 1866, where he opened a studio in the Péra district.
Nikolai Andriomenos (1850-1929) worked for almost thirty years in the studio he created in 1867 in Beyazit, then opened a new one in Péra in 1895. He practiced his profession until the last day of his life, on the 27th. January 1929. His son, Tanas Andriomenos (1900-1988) inherited the last camera from his father, whose profession he continued until his death.
Guillaume (Gustaf Adolf) Berggren (1835-1920) opened a photography studio in Péra in the early 1880s. Mastering the technique perfectly, he took magnificent views of Istanbul, its streets, the Bosphorus and its shores, as well as than a wide variety of landscapes.
Bogos Tarkulyan (? -1940) created a studio in 1880 under the name of "Phébus". With talent, he colored his photographs in pastel shades. In the 1890s, he brought back a plaster horse 70 to 80 centimeters high from France to pose for children during photography sessions.
Louis Saboungi (1838-1931) left in 1871 to travel around the world, and took many photographs during this trip. He arrived in Istanbul in 1889. Translator and adviser to Sultan Abdülhamid II, he also gave photography lessons to the children of the Sultan.
Mihran İranyan, who opened a studio in Pera in 1891, photographed, with a striking aesthetic approach, portraits, Istanbul street scenes, landscapes, cemeteries, street vendors and monuments. Solidly composed and rich in content, his photographs could rival those of the best studios of the time.
Military photographers
Fig. 9: Ali Sami Aközer, Servili Ahmed Emin, 1886.
Adjutant Ahmed Emin, with his camera equipment.
© Engin Özendes Collection.
Apart from any institution with a commercial aim, the military photographers carried out numerous photographic works on the Palace and contributed to enrich the documentation on life during the time of the Ottoman Empire.
Among the best-known military photographers are Captain Hüsnü Bey (1844-1896), who in 1872 published A Treatise on Photography; Servili Ahmed Emin (1845-1892) (Fig. 9), who took many photographs in various cities of Anatolia where he went on the orders of the Sultan; Lieutenant-Commander Mehmet Hüsnü (1861-?), who was awarded the 5th class Medjidié medal for his work; Fahrettin Türkkan Paşa (1868-1948), who, having learned photography from French engineers working with his father, took pictures of Istanbul; Üsküdarlı Ali Sami Aközer (1867-1936) who, for years, introduced the princes (shahzadah) to photography and, in 1898, accompanied the German Emperor William II between Istanbul and Jerusalem, and Bahriyeli Ali Sami, chief photographer of the Darülaceze2, professor of photography at the naval school and author of a manual on the principles to be observed when taking pictures.
The role of Sultan Abdülhamid II in the rise of photography
Of all the Ottoman sultans, Abdülhamid II was the most enthusiastic proponent of photography. In 1901, the 25th anniversary of his enthronement, he ordered, in the context of the amnesty proclaimed in the Ottoman Empire, that all prisoners in Istanbul be photographed. He had already set up, as early as 1894, a photography studio in Yildiz Palace. Insofar as the Sultan invited to cover the events of the country and to photograph the main institutions, many photographers gravitated around the Palace. Thanks to them, Abdülhamid II could follow what was happening in his country.
The first Muslim studios
In 1910, Bahaeddin Bediz (1875-1951) opened in Istanbul, under the name “Resna”, the first studio owned by a Muslim. Specializing in portraits, the studio quickly became very famous, but its rise was short-lived and its decline just as rapid: its activity lasted only fifteen years.
Naciye Hanım (Suman) (1881-1973), the first female photographer of the Ottoman era, opened a studio in 1919 and hung a sign on the door of her own house: "Naciye, Ladies' Photographer". Women who wrote to their husbands who had gone to the front lines during the War of Independence attached a portrait of them, taken in this studio, to their letter.
War photographs and the early years of the Republic
Fig. 10: Arif Hikmet Koyunoğlu, Street vendor in a street in Eyüp, 1905.
© Engin Özendes Collection.
Photographers of the War of Independence were, for the most part, soldiers involved in fighting. Among the most important photographers of this period are Esat Nedim Tengizman (1898-1980), Etem Tem (1901-1971), Burhan Felek (1895-1982) and Arif Hikmet Koyunoglu (1888-1982).
After the proclamation of the Republic, the studios flourished, often under the name "Zafer" (Victory). In general euphoria, many photographers - the best known of which are Etem Tem (1901-1971) and Cemal Işıksel (1905-1989) - multiplied the photographs of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Supreme Leader and President of the newly created Turkish Republic.
[1] Collection of traditions relating to the actions and words of the Prophet Muhammad.
[2] Establishment created on February 2, 1896, during the reign of Abdülhamid II, to take care of the needy and orphans.
Biographies
Pascal Sébah, The Fountain of Sultan Ahmet III in Istanbul, detail, circa 1870. National Museum of Asian Arts - Guimet (AP10142).
Fig. 1: Pascal Sébah, The Fountain of Sultan Ahmet III in Istanbul, detail, circa 1870.
© National Museum of Asian Arts - Guimet (AP10142).
In 1857, Pascal Sébah (Fig. 1) opened a photography studio under the name of El Chark Société Photographique in a building located at No. 10 rue Tom Tom, which also housed the Austrian and French post offices. In 1860, he moved to No 439 Grand'Rue de Péra, next to the Russian Embassy, and entrusted the management of the studio to a Frenchman named A. Laroche. This one will work with Sébah in Istanbul until the end of 1873.
In 1859, Sébah was awarded a medal from the French Society of Photography in Paris for all of his work.
On February 27, 1863, the first national exhibition of the Ottoman Empire (Sergi-i Umumî-i Osmanî) opened in Sultanahmet, on the hippodrome square (Atmeydanı). The artistic section of the exhibition presents two panoramas of Istanbul produced by Sébah, each composed of ten photographs. In 1867, he was awarded another prize at the Paris exhibition.
The year 1873 marked a turning point in Sébah's career. He meets the painter Osman Hamdi Bey who will introduce him to respectable artistic circles in Istanbul. This meeting will be decisive for the rest of his career. The two artists will enter into a kind of symbiotic relationship and Osman Hamdi Bey will now use photographs in most of his pictorial works.
Pascal Sébah, The Popular Costumes of Turkey in 1873, cover. © Engin Özendes Collection.
Fig. 2: Pascal Sébah, Popular costumes of Turkey in 1873, cover.
© Engin Özendes Collection.
In 1873 Osman Hamdi Bey was appointed curator of an exhibition in the Ottoman section of the Vienna World's Fair. He sent there precious objects and clothing from different regions of the empire or belonging to the Ottoman Treasury. Pascal Sébah takes large-format photos of these costumes and prepares a book entitled The Popular Costumes of Turkey in 1873 (Fig. 2), which includes 319 pages of 27.5 × 37 cm format and 74 photographs of 20 × 26 cm . The album is printed in Sébah's workshops as a collotype. In thanks for this work, Sultan Abdülaziz (r. 1861-1876) awarded Pascal Sébah the Medjidié 3rd class medal.
Laroche's letters, published in various issues of the French review Le Moniteur de la photographie, provide details on the preparation of the Vienna exhibition catalog. Ernest Lacan, editor-in-chief of the review, introduces the article in these terms:
“We already knew that there were excellent photographers in Constantinople; the fine specimens sent to the various exhibitions by MM. Sébah and Mr. Abdullah would have sufficed to fix us in this regard. But we could not imagine that we were, so far from Paris, ahead on certain points and that the new methods, hardly tried yet in France, were there in full application ...
Fig. 3: Pascal Sébah, advertisement published in the 1881 edition of The Ottoman Indicator, an almanac-directory of commerce, industry, administration and the judiciary.
© Engin Özendes Collection.
The fame of Pascal Sébah begins to exceed the limits of the Ottoman territory. Dreaming of creating a studio outside Constantinople, he opened a branch in Cairo at the end of 1873. He then produced numerous images of landscapes, streets, market places and buildings in Alexandria, Cairo and in the desert. from Nubia. Pascal Sébah began a collaboration with H. Béchard who had been working in Cairo since 1870 and had another studio in Paris. This collaboration will continue until the beginning of 1880.
Sébah participates in international exhibitions presenting images of Istanbul and Cairo. Having sent several photographs to Philadelphia in 1876, he was awarded a medal in 1877. In an exhibition in Paris in 1878, he won a silver medal for his Egyptian photographs (Fig. 3).
At the height of his success, Pascal Sébah was exhausted having to manage his main studio in Istanbul, continue his photographic work in that of Cairo and try to meet all requests, which forced him to often commute between the two cities. In 1883, aged 60, he was paralyzed following a stroke. No longer able to work and his children being too young, it is his brother Cosmi (? -1896), also a photographer - he had set up a studio in 1880, at 346 de la Grand'Rue de Péra, where he worked until in 1883 - who took over Pascal's studio to ensure the subsistence of his family. On June 25, 1886, Pascal Sébah died after being bedridden for three years.
If Cosmi Sébah takes over the interim by continuing the family tradition, the real heirs of the studio are Pascal's very young children. In 1888, Joannes (Jean) Sébah (1872-1947), with the help of his uncle Cosmi, entered into a partnership with the photographer Policarpe Joaillier (1848-1904). Their association took the name Sébah & Joaillier and experienced a golden age. The Istanbul studio will be well managed and the Cairo studio will experience further growth.
The catalogs, made up of images selected one by one, relate in particular to the following themes:
- in Istanbul (Constantinople): images of the Palace, treasury objects, the Golden Horn, the islands of Istanbul, the Bosphorus, mosques, churches, mausoleums, cemeteries, museums, statues, ramparts, market places, merchants ;
- in Bursa (Brousse): urban landscapes, mosques, mausoleums, bridges, streets;
- in Edirne (Andrinople): landscapes, bridges, mosques, views of villages;
- in Izmir (Smyrna): the port, the coast.
Also in the catalog are various cities or regions near and far such as Pergamon, Ephesus, Afyon, Konya, Iznik (Nicaea), Baghdad, Syria and Egypt.
In 1889, German Emperor Wilhelm II visited Istanbul with his wife, Queen Augusta Victoria. The Sébah & Joaillier company, which takes beautiful photos of the imperial couple, will be awarded the title of “photographer of the Royal Court of Prussia”. This title, which Pascal Sébah was unable to obtain during his lifetime, becomes the new symbol of the studio that he himself had created.
In 1900, to pay their debts, the Abdullah brothers sold their studio, with all its equipment, for 1,200 Ottoman liras, to their biggest competitor Sébah & Joaillier. On the back of their business cards, Sébah & Joaillier now add the words: "successors of Abdullah Frères".
Guillaume (Gustaf Adolf) Berggren (1835-1920)
Fig. 4: Guillaume (Gustaf Adolf) Berggren.
© Engin Özendes Collection.
Guillaume Berggren (Fig. 4) was born on March 20, 1835 in Stockholm. In 1850, he left the family home and began to work as an apprentice with a master carpenter. Gifted, he is making rapid progress.
In 1855, eager to travel to Europe, he left Stockholm and embarked for Hamburg. From there, he went to Berlin where he became an apprentice in a photographer's studio. Berggren worked in other European cities before arriving in Odessa on the Black Sea coast. Berggren plans to travel around the world. In 1866, he embarked aboard a ship which, having left the Black Sea, had to cross the Bosporus, the Sea of Marmara, the Dardanelles and the Mediterranean Sea to Marseille. However, stopping in the port of Istanbul, he took this opportunity to visit the city, and, fascinated by this mysterious gateway to the East, he immediately decided to settle there.
This trip had brought him to the city where he would live until the end of his days. In 1870, he married a Greek woman named Amélie. He then worked for a shipping company, then created, during this decade, photography studios in different places. In the early 1880s, he opened a studio that he would keep for a long time on the second floor of a building, at no.414 Grand'Rue de Péra, opposite the Sainte-Marie church, at the top of the street. Dervishe (today, Piremeci).
During the construction of the railway line to reach Baghdad in the 1880s, Berggren traveled to Anatolia with Goltz Pasha and took pictures in the many towns served by the railway. His images of Konya, Bursa, Akşehir, Bilecik, Sakarya, Manisa and Izmir are magnificent applications of photographic techniques, but also precious documents on this period. Goltz Pasha's book Anatolische Ausflüge, Reisebilder, published in Berlin in 1896, contains some works by Fettel but mainly presents photographs taken by Berggren in Ankara, Kütahya, Izmir, Eskihisar, Eskişehir and on the Sakarya river.
In 1883, Berggren was joined by Hilda Ullin, the daughter of his sister Charlotta, who came from Sweden to help her in her studio.
Through his technical mastery, Berggren achieved beautiful views of Istanbul and its streets, the Bosphorus and its shores (Fig. 5), people (Fig. 6) and landscapes. He was one of the great masters of Ottoman photographers.
Guillaume Berggren, Kız Kulesi (Leander Tower). © Engin Özendes Collection.
Fig. 5: Guillaume Berggren, Kız Kulesi (Leander Tower).
© Engin Özendes Collection.
No one knows when the original tower dates from, but the current tower was built by Sultan Mahmud II (r. 1808-1839) as a replacement for a wooden tower that burned down in 1880.![]()
Guillaume Berggren, Greek Woman, circa 1900. Postcard after a photograph by Berggren. Constantinople: Max Fruchtermann (editor). © Engin Özendes Collection.
Fig. 6: Guillaume Berggren, Greek Woman, circa 1900.
Postcard after a photograph by Berggren.
Constantinople: Max Fruchtermann (editor).
© Engin Özendes Collection.
When in 1885 the Swedish king Oscar II (1829-1907) and his family came to visit Istanbul, Berggren took a picture of them on the embassy terrace. He will give the album of the photos taken to the king, which will earn him a medal and the title of "Royal Swedish Photographer". Guillaume Berggren will also be decorated by the Ottoman Sultan.
[ Pehr Vilhelm Berggren, known as Guillaume Berggren, (20 March 1835, Stockholm - 26 August 1920, Istanbul)
His photographs were mostly everyday scenes, but he also took pictures of events related to the Russo-Turkish War and the opening of the Orient Express. Tourists were a major source of income.
He went back to Sweden in 1883, but soon returned to Istanbul with a young woman whom he introduced as his niece, Hilda Ullin. What was meant to be a visit turned into a lifetime commitment, as she remained to help him operate his studio and set up a shop, which she ran for several years after his death.[2] They also took advantage of the increasing popularity of postcards, producing numerous landscapes and urban scenes. Their shop was well known in Sweden and became a popular spot for Swedish travelers, including several notable people, such as Anders and Emma Zorn [sv], King Oscar II and Sven Hedin.
A visit by the Zorns is described in autobiographical notes by Claes Adolf Adelsköld: "On Christmas Eve in the morning, Zorn and I decided to play Turks and went for this purpose to a Swedish photographer, Mr. Berggren, established in Constantinople, to photograph us in a group, equipped as natives. The group, arranged by Zorn, included an old spearman to a slave trader (it was me), and Emma Zorn was a slave-woman, on whom two lovers, Zorn and Axel, speculated, and sought to outbid each other."
Eventually, as the price and size of cameras decreased, and tourists were able to buy their own, he found it increasingly difficult to make a living. At one point, he was apparently forced to sell some of his glass negatives to gardeners, who used them to build greenhouses. Luckily, word of this reached officials in the German embassy, who purchased most of his negatives in 1916. They are now preserved at the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut Istanbul [de]. Despite this, Berggren died in poverty. ]
When he died at the age of 85, his niece Hilda Ullin buried him, placing all his photographic equipment in his coffin. His grave is in the Swedish square of Ferikoy cemetery in Istanbul.
Basil Kargopoulo (1826-1886)
Fig. 7: Photographic business card of Basile Kargopoulo, 1860.
Printed in gold on black by the Wachtl company in Vienna, 6.7 × 11 cm.
© Engin Özendes Collection.
The back of the card bears as decoration the medals won by Basil Kargopoulo in competitions as well as the imperial decorations awarded to him, under the monogram (tuğra) of Sultan Abdülhamid II (r. 1876-1909).
Basile (Vasili) Kargopoulo, a photographer of Greek origin, opened a studio in Péra in 1850, at no 4, Tünel square (Fig. 7). In partnership with E. Foscolo, he ran a second in Edirne, which at the time was a busy military base. After having worked simultaneously in both cities, Kargopoulo decided, in 1881, to devote himself entirely to the Edirne studio; two years later, he opened a branch near the Lycée de Galatasaray (1883).
Kargopoulo produces in particular panoramas of Istanbul and it constitutes a rich photographic documentation on the city. In addition, he has in his studio an important wardrobe for young idlers who wish to dress up to have their picture taken.
His photographs of the Sultan's palace and residences are also very popular. He took numerous photographs of the palace and the city of Edirne and, apart from his scenes of the Bosphorus (Fig. 8), he photographed fishermen, grocers, sellers of rolls or drinks and many street vendors. . Printed on 6 × 9 cm paper, these photographs are then pasted onto studio cards and sold as typical images of the Turkish population. Kargopoulo owes its fame to these images which greatly contribute to publicizing the history and folklore of Istanbul.
After 1879, appointed photographer of the Palace, in place of the Abdullah brothers, he obtained from Sultan Abdülhamid the title of “photographer of His Imperial Majesty” (Fig. 9). He held these positions for a long time. He was also the private photographer of Sultan Murad V, to whom he gave photography lessons in his youth, until he came to power for a short reign of three months. When Sultan Abdülhamid II ascends the throne, Kargopoulo loses his title for a time for having kept on the wall of his studio the photo of Sultan Murad V. He is also responsible for the photography studio created in 1884 on Abdülhamid's instructions. II in the building of the Ministry of Police. It was in this studio that he would later take the photos of the prisoners.
Basile Kargopoulo, Göksu Fountain, around 1870. © Collection Engin Özendes.
Fig. 8: Basile Kargopoulo, Fontaine Göksu, around 1870.
© Engin Özendes Collection.
This elegant fountain, which stands on the banks of the Bosphorus, in a public park between the Göksu and Küçüksu rivers, was built in 1796 by Sultan Selim III (r. 1789-1807) in honor of his mother, Valide Sultan Mihrişah. This district, which faces the fortress of Roumelia on the opposite bank of the Bosphorus, was known to Europeans as the Fresh Waters of Asia.
Basile Kargopoulo, Prince Seyfeddin Efendi (1874-1927), son of Sultan Abdülaziz (r. 1861-1876) and Gevheri Kadınefendi, 1879. © Collection Engin Özendes.
Fig. 9: Basile Kargopoulo, Prince Seyfeddin Efendi (1874-1927), son of Sultan Abdülaziz (r. 1861-1876) and Gevheri Kadınefendi, 1879.
© Engin Özendes Collection.
On the death of Basil (Vasili) Kargopoulo, the position of photographer of the Palace will be offered to his son Constantine, who will not make a real career. The studio in Place Tünel closed in 1895.
SOURCE Réunion des musées nationaux – Grand Palais, 2016
We would like to thank for their technical or scientific assistance and their advice: Raphaël Chipault, Pierre de Gigord, Sandra Petrillo, Annabelle Simon and Benjamin Soligny.
We also express our gratitude to Jean-François Allain for the translation of the essays by Engin Özendes, to Arnaud Chabrol for the proofreading of the manuscript and to Jean-Marc Destabeaux for the formatting of its indexing, to Thomas Ansart and Benoît Martin of the cartography workshop of Sciences-Po, Paris, to Paul Gemperlé for the production of the leafing of the album, as well as to Yolande Manzano and Thierry Le Meur who worked to put the catalog online within the department of Editions of the Réunion des Musées Nationaux - Grand Palais.
Preface
An album of travelers and curious people
The National Museum of Asian Arts - Guimet keeps one of these albums as it should have been in the library of a good man, traveler and curious at the end of the 19th century.
The Fresh Waters of Asia, Leander's Tower, Beykoz, Ahmet III's Fountain, Kağıthane Park, Büyükdere, Dolmabahçe, Hagia Sophia, Tophane, Topkapı Palace, Üsküdar and Eyüp ... As many names that bring back the memory of an ancient city. Constantinople is no more. This sentimental topography is enclosed in this leather-backed canvas album which contains some of the most common names in photography in the Ottoman Empire: the Levantines Pascal Sébah (1823-1886) and Vassilaki Kargopoulo (1826-1886) . The latter opened his studio in 1850, Grand’Rue de Péra in Constantinople, and was thus one of the pioneers of photography in the Ottoman Empire. He became the Sultan's photographer in 1879 before dying suddenly in 1886.
Paul Sébah succeeded in founding a photography house which would flourish in the East and successfully establish itself in the Egypt of the Khedives.
The album, however, focuses on Turkey. If Constantinople holds the central place there, Brousse, the first Ottoman capital is also there. Edirne, in European Turkey, is absent from the ensemble.
Constantinople presents two clearly distinct aspects: that of an immense heritage which takes us from the splendours of the Byzantine Empire, here summarized in Hagia Sophia and a few views of the walls, to those of the glorious Ottoman capital soon converted into a vibrant modern metropolis not without amenities.
The views exalt at the same time the incomparable panorama of a metropolis between two continents and the unmissable places of an already codified tourism. Along with Granada, Constantinople is undoubtedly one of the first places of photographic tourism in the 19th century; the two cities harmoniously combine the splendor of a site with the glory of monuments "made by human hands", finally with the weight of history. Constantinople, however, dominates the first by a note of modernity to which the Andalusian city does not claim. The Panorama of the Golden Horn from the Galata Tower of Sébah which opens the album immediately identifies it as a representative assemblage intended for a well-to-do tourist. It stages the bustling activity of a capital where modernity - the Galata Bridge, the steamboats on the Bosphorus - rub shoulders with the most venerable heritage by the candlelight of the minarets. This famous urban view is matched by the panorama of Kargopoulo, which illustrates the most rustic face of Constantinople, reminiscent of the city's elegant resorts. This same gaze is noticeable in the photos devoted to Brousse, the capital located in Anatolia, rich in first-rate monuments and also famous for its escapes to a spectacular site, on the mountainside.
Finally, nothing is missing from the album to contain the perfect memory of a trip to the East, not even the front of one of the famous pastry shops of Constantinople or the picturesque physical types and the image of the most diverse street trades. .
I would particularly like to thank the teams of the National Museum of Asian Arts - Guimet, those of the Louvre Museum, our partners and the staff of the Réunion des Musées Nationaux - Grand Palais for this online publication.
President of the National Museum of Asian Arts - Guimet
[*] Ms. Makariou studied philosophy and history of art, specialising in the Islamic world: the interaction between the Islamic and Chinese world of art. She worked for 12 years at the Louvre where she created and became director of the Islamic arts section.
Sophie Makariou is the daughter of a Breton woman and a Cypriot who became French in 1956. She is married but has kept her maiden name..
She reckons that she was really born in 1973, aged 7, when she made her first trip to her paternal family. In Cyprus, "she meets the colors, flavors, light and" the intoxication of another world "" writes Le Figaro.