Sébah & Joaillier order Albumen Print c.1890

Sébah & Joaillier Albumen Print
Title: 259. Cimetiere turc a Scutari
Date: 1890s
Photographer: Jean Pascal Sébah (1872–1947)
Studio: Sébah & Joaillier Photography Studio

Condition: center crease (examine photo closely to determine condition)
Size: 7 5/8 in. x 10 1/2 in.

This photograph is of the Karacaahmet Cemetery, a 700-year-old historic cemetery, located in Üsküdar on the Asian side of Istanbul. It is the oldest in Istanbul and the largest burial ground in Turkey. The cemetery was named after a warrior companion of Orhan I, the second Ottoman sultan order and is believed to have been founded in the mid-14th century. It is estimated that over a million people are interred in the non-profit cemetery.

Jean Pascal Sébah was the son of Pascal Sébah who had operated a photographic studio in Cairo from the mid-1850s and another in Constantinople from the early 1870s. The Sébah studio earned a reputation for the foremost Orientalist photography in the region. In 1888 Pollicarpe Joiallier became a partner and the company was renamed Sebah & Joaillier. 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.