Istanbul’s earliest photos on display in New York

Istanbul’s earliest photos on display in New York

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New York Metropolitan Museum of Art presents pioneer French photographer Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prang’s earliest photos of Turkey, Greece, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Jerusalem. Click through for the story in photos...
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Visuals from 176 years ago, shot by French photographer Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey, are on display at an exhibition at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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In 1842, artist, architectural historian, archaeologist, and pioneer photographer Prangey embarked on a three-year photographic excursion throughout the eastern Mediterranean, and he returned to France with more than 1,000 daguerreotypes.
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A trailblazer of the daguerreotype process, Girault used oversize plates and innovative formats to produce what is today the world’s oldest photographic archive, all in the service of a brand-new type of archaeological fieldwork.
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Among the images he created are the earliest surviving photographs of Turkey, Greece, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Jerusalem and among the first daguerreotypes depicting Italy.
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The exhibition, titled “Monumental Journey: The Daguerreotypes of Girault de Prangey,” is the first in the United States devoted to Girault, and the first to focus on his Mediterranean journey, features approximately 120 of his daguerreotypes.
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It brings visitors to a travel to the 19th century.
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Among the Istanbul photos in the Anatolia section of the show is the one shows Istanbul in a panoramic view. Nuruosmaniye Mosque, Süleymaniye Mosque and the Hagia Sophia, as well as the Bosphorus and the Marmara Sea, are seen in the photo.
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In different parts of the city, the portrait of the rider of Prangey’s horse can also be seen.
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Daguerreotypists in the early 1840s faced enormous technical challenges, especially in the desert, so daguerreotypes from these years are exceedingly rare.
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No other photographer of the period embarked on such a long excursion and successfully made a quantity of plates anywhere near Girault’s production of more than a thousand daguerreotypes.
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The resulting photographic campaign remains an unparalleled feat in its appearance, scope, scale, and ambition.
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“The exhibition reveals Girault as the originator of a thoroughly modern conception of photography, by which visual memories can be stored, retrieved, reassembled, and displayed,” said the curator of Department of Photographs, Stephen Pinson.
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“At the same time, it is perhaps more important than ever to recognize that Girault was himself the product of a complex network of political, social, and historical forces that had far-reaching impact on the West’s relationship with the world he photographed.”
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Girault never exhibited his daguerreotypes and died without direct heirs in 1892. In 1920, a distant relative, Charles de Simony, purchased Girault’s estate outside Langres, France, and discovered the photographs.
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A handful of intrepid collectors and curators were henceforth aware of the collection, but its dramatic content and scope remained little-known to the world until 2003, when the first of several auctions of material drawn from the original archive was held.
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Organized in collaboration with the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the exhibition will run through May 12. (Photos: Anadolu Agency)
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