Sébah, J. Pascal (d. 1890), Constantinople (Istanbul)-based commercial photographer whose genre scenes, views, and archaeological studies of the Middle East, especially Egypt, but also Palestine and Mesopotamia, were widely distributed from the 1870s. Made using the wet-plate process, they appear in various formats, from cartes de visite to panoramas. At some stage he went into partnership with another photographer, Jollier (or Joaillier), and, as with many contemporaries, it is uncertain how many of the photographs issued by the firm were actually taken by Sébah. In 1899, the acquisition of Abdullah Frères' stock compounded the problem of attribution.
In 1873 Sébah was commissioned by the Turkish painter Osman Hamdy Bey to make a series of studio costume studies of people from different regions and social classes for an Ottoman album to be shown at the Vienna International Exhibition.
— Robin Lenman
Bibliography
- Perez, N. N., Focus East: Early Photography in the Near East, 1839-1885 (1988)
