"Between Orientalist Cliches and Images of Modernization: Photographic Practice in the Late Ottoman Era"

by Michelle L. Woodward, History of Photography, Volume 27, Number 4, Winter 2003.

An article about the work of the Istanbul-based photography studio Sebah and Joaillier in the late 19th century. I write about the variety of visual conventions used to depict the Middle East and how the Sebah family created a unique style of photographing groups of people in public settings that undermined Orientalist cliches and was part of an indigenous understanding of Istanbul as a modern city.

[Click here for a PDF version of the article, complete with the photos.]