Arrival of a Peculiar Art: Photography in the Ottoman Empire

Photographic practice quickly spreads throughout the Arab World.

Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey, [The Northwestern area of the Haram al-Sharif, Jerusalem] (about 1842), Deguerreotype. Courtesy of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

With text by Mitra Abbaspour, curator and Scholar.

Submerged beneath a wash of aqua blue tint that suspends Frenchman Girault de Prangey’s view of the Haram al-Sharif in a dream like space, one might forget today that this view of the sacred site in Jerusalem would have also been seen as having an unprecedented fidelity and documentary authority as one of the very first photographs to ever record it.

Photography’s invention was presented in the Ottoman Empire with a similar combination of scientific description and poetic fanfare as reflected in the announcement of its patent and process. On October 28, 1839, just two months after Daguerre’s discoveries, the newspaper Takvim-I Vekayi , which published in Arabic, Turkish and French, reported “a gentleman has concentrated his thoughts and realized a peculiar art, which results in a curious mirror effect. A talented French Daguerre, has captured the reflected outlines of objects in sunlight, using various artistic and scientific methods “Since the moment of its invention, photography conveyed the desire of its practitioners to both imagine and reflect their view of the world.

During the nineteenth century the Ottoman Empire included most of the Eastern Mediterranean, where monuments of ancient Egypt as well as the Biblical sites are located. This made it a focus of European cultural interests and political strategies. Each advance in the technology of photography during its early decades made its way into Arab world with traveling expeditions. In the Ottoman court the medium found patronage as a tool of governance, propaganda and documentation of their empire. In 1863, Sultan Abdulaziz I appointed the Abdullah Freres Studio as court photographers, making photography as official branch of the state. The Abdullah Studio was run by trio of Armenian brothers, who maintained their position as representatives of the Sultan even under Abdulaziz’s successors. Their studio was one of many located in Istanbul’s international district, offering portrait sittings to statesmen, foreign diplomats and those with business interests while also offering souvenir views of the empire and its cultural sites to European tourists. Sultan Abdulhamid II employed photographers within his court as well as learning the technique himself. The era of his rule, from 1876-1909, coincided with political and economic strains on Ottoman lands and the fracturing and loss of provinces. In this tenuous environment, Abdulhamid II used photography to survey his military corps, follow he visits of foreign dignitaries and generally watch over the empire and its citizens.

Istanbul was the seat of political power for most of the Arab world, however, for European audiences, Palestine and Egypt held the greatest draw as subjects of photography. While cameras, manuals and equipment arrived in the Ottoman capital as diplomatic gifts, as well as though trade, photographers traveling from Europe to document the monuments of ancient Egypt and the Biblical sites in Palestine, were responsible for bringing photographic technology to these provinces.

In Jerusalem, photography took root in an Armenian covenant, led by the interest and practice of Patriarch Yessai Garabedian. Both oral and written histories of the Patriarch confirm that before 1859 Garabedian attained sufficient proficiency in photography to garner patronage. He then moved to Istanbul to improve his techniques. A trip in 1863 to Europe ensured that Garabedian learned the latest advances in technology and he maintained correspondence throughout the following decades to keep up with ongoing advances. A few photographs signed by Garabedian are important early documents of local practice, yet his significance was as a teacher during the Ottoman Empire. He instructed many young Armenians from various provinces. His influence can be traced both directly and indirectly as Armenians established the majority of photography studios in Istanbul as well as in the Arab provinces well into the twentieth century. Thus, the history of photography in the Arab world is also a history of Armenian photographers that includes a visual history of the ethnic and cultural diversity of the empire.

The early adoption of photography by Ottoman Sultans and the Armenian community offer only a brief glimpse into the introduction of photography to the Arab world. This was parallel to the contemporaneous economy of photography in Europe, which similarly gained momentum through governmental patronage, the enthusiasm for photographic studios and the motivations of Christian communities to “see” Palestine. Photography held power as a medium that was simultaneously a “peculiar art” and a “curious mirror”- or a visual paradox that transformed and transported views of the world merely by reflecting them onto a coated copper or glass plate.

During the nineteenth century, photography in the Ottoman Empire thus incorporates the history of photography in various areas of the Arab world. The geo-political divisions of the empire responded to the great expansion of photography in the twentieth-century as well as political and economic growth of Arab nations in the Maghreb, the Gulf States and other provinces. Therefore a history of photography in the Arab world must acknowledge the multi ethnic participation in photographic practice, as well as its Ottoman origins.

Photography was linked to the Arab world the moment the French patent for the Daguerreotype was announced in 1839. It was promised that this new medium would be more precise than the monumental records made during Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt Taken as a call to action, photographers set out for Egypt within months of the public description of photographic methods. These photographers then often travelled to Biblical sites in the Sinai and Palestine, generating a voracious economy in Europe for such views of “the Orient” So, a history of photography in the Arab world was forged by an international economy for multiple and reproducible views of the region, views that reinforced Orientalist narratives already in circulation. Thus, this history is embedded within and directly reflects cultural dynamics between Europe and the Arab world. 

Nuancing the history of photography in the Arab world using a variety of lenses enriches and expands our view of both photography and the Arab world. Part of photography’s vitality is the way that transcends genres, serving as art, as popular practice, as journalistic document and as an instrument of the state. Considering how photography gave voice to intertwined yet distinct Arab, Armenian, European and Turkish narratives within the region offers a diversity to the history of this medium. This opens up the possibility to continue excavating the layered contexts of a region with the history of photography as long and prolific as the technology itself.

Engin Cigen, Photography in the Ottoman Empire (Istanbul: Haset Kitabevi, 1987), 20.