SEBAH AND JOIALLIER

PANORAMA DE CONSTANTINOPLE PRIS DE LA TOUR DE GALATA.

SEBAH AND JOIALLIER, 1880

composed from 10 seperate photographs (215 x 277 mm.), folding in a gold tooled red cloth book.

A magnificent panorama of nearly 360 degrees, taken from the Galata Tower at the turn of the twentieth-century. The photographer takes the viewer on a journey across Istanbul from the centre of Pera down to the Bosphorous as far as the Sea of Marmara, and then up the Golden Horn to the shipyards at Kasimpasa and Taskizak, and back to Pera. As one would expect from an image primarily produced for the wealthy tourist the majority of the city’s famous sites are visible: the Topkapi Palace, the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, the Aquaduct of Valens, and both the Beyazit and Maiden’s Towers, with the fine Admiralty building by the dockyards. The Golden Horn provides a very evocative scene with a mix of steam ships, coastal sailing vessels and small boats all gathered together on the shores.

It is possible to date this panorama from a number of structures, including the Ottoman Bank which appears in the foreground of the panorama, and the Galata bridge connecting Eminönü and Galata, just to the left. The former, which still appears fresh and new in this panorama, was completed in 1892, whilst the latter was replaced by the fourth Galata bridge in 1912.

Sébah & Joaillier were one of the foremost photographic studios in Istanbul at the end of the nineteenth-century. Formed following the death of Pascal Sébah in 1886, the business was re-invigorated by the energy that Policarpe Joaillier brought to the business and he produced several panoramas such as the one described here in the following years. Although they failed in their efforts to become photographers to the Ottoman Court, they were recognised by the Sultan and awarded the Mecidi Order (3rd Class), and were appointed official photographers to Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1889 during his visit to Istanbul: “Photographes de la Court Royale de Prusse.”

cf. Öztuncay, The Photographers of Constantinople, I, p.281.