Some three thousand years ago Pharaoh Ramses II ordered the creation of a colossal statue of himself to guard the entrance of the temple of Ptah at Memphis. This prominent pharaoh, born in 1302 BC, was one of the most well known of all the ancient Egyptian rulers. At the young age of fourteen, his father Seti I appointed him Prince Regent, and he began his extraordinarily long rule of Egypt. For the next sixty-seven years, he distinguished himself as one of the most successful rulers of the ancient world with his military campaigns and his extensive building projects. Amongst the notable structures constructed during his reign are the hypostyle hall at Karnak in Thebes, and the funerary temple of his father Seti I along the bank of the Nile at Luxor. He also funded the building of his own funerary monument known at Ramesseum, not far from his father’s. In Nubia, he built six temples, one of which is the well-known and much-photographed temple of Abu Simbel, carved out of the cliffs.
Over time the statue of Ramses II was forgotten and lay in disrepair under the scorching desert sun until its rediscovery in the nineteenth century.
While traveling though Egypt in 1820, Giovanni Caviglia, an Italian tourist, stumbled upon the colossal red granite statue, and it quickly became a popular stop for travelers. Around thirty years later, with the arrival of photography, this statue became one of the most highly photographed Egyptian images, being captured by Pascal Sébah, Underwood & Underwood, the Abdullah Frères and others.
In the 1850s, the photography industry was booming in the Middle East, and the financial opportunities it provided drew men of all backgrounds. Among the first to capitalize on the new worldwide obsession were the Armenian-born brothers, Vichen and Kevork Abdullah. Vichen began his career in photography in 1856, working with a German-born photographer known only as Rabach. When the latter retired and moved back to Germany in 1858, the brothers purchased his studio located in the Pera neighborhood, located in Istanbul’s European side. Naming it the Abdullah Frères Studio (this references the strong French presence in the city), the burgeoning business provided a variety of products including Daguerreotypes, landscape, and paper portraits and miniatures, as well as offering photography lessons to the public. Their images included landscapes, architecture, mosques, and studio portraits of Middle Eastern men (examples of these are represented in the Solari Foundation Collection). Younger brother Kevork became an expert in darkroom and studio work techniques, while his older brother Vichen focused on the retouching and hand coloring of photographs, as well as the posing of figures in their studio.
When they visited Paris in the early part of the 1860s for training in the latest photographic techniques, Vichen and Kevork began cultivating professional contacts that would eventually result in their designation as the official photographers of the Ottoman court. In 1863, Sultan Abdulaziz called the Abdullah brothers to his hunting lodge to photograph him and his guests. He was so pleased with their work that for the next thirteen years he was their patron. Their appointment as official court photographers propelled the Abdullah Frères Studio into unprecedented power and prestige. The only known images of Sultan Abdulaziz’s daughters, who were photographed wearing European garb, were taken by the Abdullahs, and in 1874 the Sultan issued a decree that it was illegal to make copies of any photos of the imperial family that had been taken by the Abdullah Frères.
After the death of Sultan Abdulaziz in 1876, the social and political unrest that ensued would eventually become the undoing of the famed studio. In 1877, following a bitter war between Turkey and Russia, Sultan Abdulhamid II (who succeeded Abdulaziz) was forced to sign a peace treaty that imposed oppressive and burdensome terms on the Turkish state. In that same year, Kevork Abdullah imprudently agreed to photograph the victorious Russian duke and his officers. Seen as an act of treason by the new sultan, this move proved disastrous for the Abdullah Frères Studio, which lost its position as court photographer.
While the Abdullah Frères Studio was known throughout Europe and the Middle East for portrait photographs, they made many images of architecture and monuments of the Middle East, including the albumen print Ramses II statue—Un Statue de Ses estris a Sakkara. Taken in the original location of its discovery, the image shows the pharaoh’s 125-ton prone likeness that had been originally found in six pieces.
For a short time, the Abdullah Frères were replaced as court photographers by their rival, Vassilaki Kargopoulo. With his unexpected death in 1886, his son was named his successor, but was dismissed two years later in 1888 after he was found to be inexperienced and inept. This offered an opportunity for Vichen to reemerge in the photography world. After years of financial difficulties, the Abdullah brothers moved to Cairo and opened another studio. In 1890, Edward, The Prince of Wales, chose them as the official court photographers, and around this same time the Abdullah Frères Studio was restored at the Ottoman court as well. Although the name Abdullah Frères remained, Vichen ran the studio by himself until it was sold in 1899 to Sébah & Joaillier.
Teresa Shannon
Abdullah Frères, Un Statue de Ses estris a Sakkara, c.1860s, albumen print, 19.7 x 25.8 cm, SOLARI 94.016.049