![]() The series featuring Robertson’s watercolour observations of people in typical Ottoman professions, for instance, have an intimate rather than academic touch: his subjects are friendly and relaxed in the presence of this ‘local’ foreigner. Unsurprising, perhaps, for a university-curated exhibition featuring loaned originals from the private collections of the Koç family, yet the works themselves possess a vitality and immediacy that could have handled more imaginative presentation. ![]() In tone, research and curation, the exhibition presents a rather museum-like, academic display of spot-lit sepia photos, minted coins in glass cases, bilingual biographical timelines and dusty Victorian tomes featuring Robertson’s photos. Widely thought to be one of the first war photographers, Robertson even traveled to Crimea to photograph the fall of Sevastopol in 1855, and further east to document the aftermath of the 1857 Indian Rebellion. In what can surely be described as nothing less than one of the earliest photojournalistic endeavours, they produced detailed shots of architecturally and historically significant locations in Greece, Malta, Palestine, Syria, and Egypt. Over the next decade, Robertson & Beato Photography captured an array of Ottoman mosques, fountains, city walls and the multicultural architectural heritage of this imperial capital. 10 years on, he had a set up a small photography studio in Pera, Constantinople’s historic Levantine district, turning his hobby into a business with his brother-in-law, Felice Beato. Hosted by Koç University’s Research Centre for Anatolian Civilisations, Istanbul, in commemoration of his 200th birthday, ‘Robertson: Photographer and Engraver in the Ottoman Capital’ showcases both Robertson’s photography and his four decades of work (spanning the reigns of four Sultans), as chief engraver for the Ottoman Imperial Mint.Īfter completing his vocational training at the London Royal Mint, Robertson arrived in Istanbul in 1841 to implement banknote and coinage reforms at the behest of the progressive Sultan Abdülmecid I. The first panorama, which was taken in May 1854 from the Tower of the War Ministry in Beyazit, consists of 12 separate photographs. Robertson is the first Istanbul photographer known to have taken 360° panoramic photographs of the city. Istanbul Panorama Taken from the Beyazit Tower (1854), James Robertson.
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