Pascal Sébah (; 1823 – June 25, 1886) was an Ottoman photographer in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

and

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

. Best known for his prolific photography of Anatolia, Egypt, and Greece, Sébah established the studio that would later become Sébah & Joaillier.

Life and work

Pascal Sébah was born in Istanbul, then the capital of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

, to a

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

n father and an

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

n mother.Philip Carabott, Yannis Hamilakis and Eleni Papargyriou (eds), ''Camera Graeca: Photographs, Narratives, Materialities,'' Routledge, 2016, p. 114 He initially worked in collaboration with the French photographer, Henri Bechard. After receiving medals at the International Exhibition in Paris, he decided to open his own studio in Constantinople in 1857. Sébah's studio was known as 'El Chark'' (meaning "The Orient"), situated at 439 Grande Rue de

Pera Pera may refer to: Places * Pera (Beyoğlu), a district in Istanbul formerly called Pera, now called Beyoğlu ** Galata, a neighbourhood of Beyoğlu, often referred to as Pera in the past * Pêra (Caparica), a Portuguese locality in the district o ...

in the center of the city and close to the embassies and hotels where tourists met. Sébah primarily produced photographs for the tourist trade. By the second half of the 19th century, tourist travel to Egypt had created a strong demand for photographs as

souvenir A souvenir ( French for 'a remembrance or memory'), memento, keepsake, or token of remembrance is an object a person acquires for the memories the owner associates with it. A souvenir can be any object that can be collected or purchased and trans ...

s. Sébah was among a group of early photographers in Constantinople and Cairo to capitalise on this demand. These pioneering photographers included

Félix Bonfils Maison Bonfils was a French family-run company producing and selling photography and photographic products from Beirut (then in Ottoman Syria, now in Lebanon) from 1867 until 1918, from 1878 on renamed "F. Bonfils et Cie". The Bonfils ran the fir ...

(1831-1885);

Gustave Le Gray Jean-Baptiste Gustave Le Gray (; 30 August 1820 – 30 July 1884)Le Corre, Florence "Translated from the catalogue ''Une visite au camp de Châlons sous le Second Empire: photographies de Messieurs Le Gray, Prévot...'', Paris: musée de l'Armée ...

(1820-1884), brothers Henri and Emile Bechard; the British-Italian brothers

Antonio Beato Antonio Beato (c. 1832–1906), also known as Antoine Beato, was an Italian-British photographer. He is noted for his genre works, portraits, views of the architecture and landscapes of Egypt and other locations in the Mediterranean region. H ...

(c. 1832–1906) and

Felice Beato Felice Beato (c. 1832 – 29 January 1909), also known as Felix Beato, was an Italian Briton, Italian–British photographer. He was one of the first people to take photographs in East Asia and one of the first war photography, war photographer ...

and the Greek Zangaki brothers. By 1873 Sébah was successful enough to open a second studio in

. The same year, he exhibited at the Ottoman pavilion of the

Universal Exhibition A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition, is a large global exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specific site for a perio ...

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Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

.Photography in Ottoman Istanbul
by Margaret Kurkoski, 2013-2015 Curatorial Fellow, Smith College Museum of Art He established a valuable working relationship with Turkish painter and archeologist

Osman Hamdi Bey Osman Hamdi Bey (30 December 1842 – 24 February 1910) was an Ottoman Turkish administrator, intellectual, art expert and also a prominent and pioneering painter. He was the Ottoman Empire's first modern archaeologist, and is regarded as the ...

, taking photographs as part of the artist's preparation, and in which he experimented with light and shade. In turn, Hamdi Bey selected Sébah to illustrate his text on the popular costumes worn by Turkish and other ethnic groups, entitled ''Les Costumes Populaires de la Turquie en 1873: ouvrage publié sous le patronage de la Commission impériale ottomane pour l'Exposition universelle de Vienne'' and published in 1873.Osman Hamdi Bey; Marie de Launay; J Pascal Sébah, ''Les Costumes Populaires de la Turquie en 1873: ouvrage publié sous le patronage de la Commission impériale ottomane pour l'Exposition universelle de Vienne,'' Turkey, Commission impériale ottomane pour l'Exposition universelle de Vienne, 1873 Following his death on 25 June 1886, the studio continued in business. It was managed by his brother, Cosmi, and in 1888 Polycarpe Joiallier became a partner. At this time, the company was renamed Sebah & JoaillierHannavy, J., ''Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography,'' Routledge, 2013, p. 1036 Pascal's son,

Jean Pascal Sébah Jean Pascal Sébah (1872 – 6 June 1947) was a Syriac-Armenian photographer. The son of Pascal Sébah, he continued the Sébah family's photographic legacy after his father's death in 1886. Life and career Jean Pascal Sébah was the son of Pas ...

, also joined in 1888 and went on to run the studio with other photographers. The firm developed a reputation as the leading representative of Orientalist photography and in 1889 was appointed the Photographers by Appointment to the

Prussian Court The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918. Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946. It played a signi ...

. Sébah's studio continued operations, in one form or another, until 1952 at the same address and then moved until its closure in 1973. Sébah, a Syrian Catholic, was buried in the Feriköy Latin Catholic Cemetery in Istanbul. His son, Jean Pascal Sébah, is also buried there.

Gallery of photographs by Sébah

File:Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz - P. Sebah (1838-1910).jpg, Portrait of

Sultan Abdul Aziz Abdulaziz (; ; 8 February 18304 June 1876) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 25 June 1861 to 30 May 1876, when he was overthrown in a government coup. He was a son of Sultan Mahmud II and succeeded his brother Abdulmejid I in 1861. Ab ...

by Pascal Sébah File:Pascal Sébah (Turkish, 1823-1886). Panoramic view of the Topkapi Saray Palace (section 1), ca. 1860-1880.jpg, Section of the ''Panoramic view of the

Topkapı Palace The Topkapı Palace (; ), or the Seraglio, is a large museum and library in the east of the Fatih List of districts of Istanbul, district of Istanbul in Turkey. From the 1460s to the completion of Dolmabahçe Palace in 1856, it served as the ad ...

, ,

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 500,000 objects. Located near the Prospect Heig ...

File:Damascusfashion.jpg, Damascus fashion, illustration from the book ''Popular Costumes in Turkey'', 1873 File:Constan.jpg, Turkish Women of Constantinople, illustration from the book ''Popular Costumes in Turkey'', 1873 File:Syrian20fashions.jpg, Syrian fashion, illustration from the book ''Popular Costumes in Turkey'', 1873 File:Alepp0fashion.jpg, Bedouins from Aleppo, illustration from the book ''Popular Costumes in Turkey'', 1873 File:Zahlefashion.jpg, Fashion (l-r): Zahle, Lebanon, and (Zgharta); illustration from the book ''Popular Costumes in Turkey'', 1873 File:Ottomcostumes1873 planche16 shkodra.jpg, Christian couple from Shkodra, illustration from the book ''Popular Costumes in Turkey'', 1873 File:MMoCA191a (MA) Photographs by J. Pascal Sebah.jpg, ''Dendra'': "Temple of Hathor" File:MMoCA191b (MA) Photographs by J. Pascal Sebah.jpg, ''Abydoss Seti I Offering Incense to Osiris''

References

General references

* Fabrizio Casaretto, Sébah & Joaillier photos. www.sebahjoaillier.com * Engin Özendes, ''From Sébah & Joaillier to Foto Sabah. Orientalism in Photography'', Istanbul, YKY, 1999. * Michelle L. Woodward, "Between Orientalist Clichés and Images of Modernization: Photographic Practice in the Late Ottoman Era," ''History of Photography'', winter 2003, Vol. 27, No. 4.

External links

''Les Costumes Popularies de la Turquie en 1873''
by Osman Bey Hamdi with illustrations by Pascal Sébah
Vintage Rag Trader - Vintage Photographs by Pascal Sebah

blog on Sebah's biography
Pascal Sébah
blog on Sebah's biography *
Bibliothèque numérique de l'INHA - Fonds photographique Pascal Sébah de l'ENSBA
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sebah, Pascal 1823 births 1886 deaths 19th-century photographers from the Ottoman Empire Orientalist painters 19th-century Armenian photographers Pioneers of photography in Egypt

Life and work

Gallery of photographs by Sébah

See also

References

General references

External links