Dimensions
217 x 262 x 24mm
To mark the second Forum of the Alliance of Civilizations in Istanbul, The Topkapi Palace hosts the exhibition Within the Confines of One Same Sea: the Palaces of the Alhambra and Topkapi in the Photography of the Journeys to the Orient. This book accompanies the exhibition which was held in 2009 and shows a simultaneous dialogue between the Alhambra and Topkapi through a selection of images of the 19th Century by, amongst others, the Photographers Laurent and Abdullah Frères. AUTHORS: Jean Laurent was a French illustrator who came to Spain in 1843 and became interested in photography in 1857. He worked as royal portrait photographer and journalist for publications as La Ilustración Española y Americana (Spanish and American Illustration) and La Crónica (The Chronicle). That was the reason why he travelled through Spain taking hundreds of pictures of people and monuments. Abdullah Frères is a company which consists of three Ottoman Armenian brothers Vhichen (1820-1902), Hovsep (1830-1908) and Kevork Abdullah (1839-1918) who ran a profitable studio in Constantinople with other locations in Cairo and Alexandria. In 1862 the three brothers were named official royal photographers to the courts of the Sultans Abdul Aziz and Abdul Hamid II, and had the right to use the royal monogram. While official royal photographers to the Sultans they were commissioned to document the Ottoman Empire in photographs. Pascal Sedah was an Ottoman pioneer photographer who worked in Istanbul. He was born in Istanbul to a Syrian Catholic father and an Armenian mother. In 1857 he opened his first photography studio in Istanbul and by 1873 was successful enough to open another studio in Cairo.
