1261
have been marketed by the studio at various times as
being the work of P. Sebah, J. P. Sebah, or Sebah &
Joaillier.
Folowing Pascal Sebah’s death in 1886, the Turkish
studio was operated by his brother Cosimi for a time,
who also trained Pascal’s son in the art of photography.
Johannes, known as Jean, reputedly joined the business
aged 16, took it over at aged 18, and immediately entered
into a partnership with Policarpe Joaillier. Joaillier re-
turned to France in 1910, but with subsequent partners,
Jean Sebah remained actively involved with the studio
until 1943.
From the 1870s, Sebah, and later Sebah and Joail-
lier, were major suppliers of evocative imagery to the
increasing number of people who to undertook the
Victorian Grand Tour. Their studio images of Egpytians
and Nubians in ‘traditional’ costumes and undertaking
‘traditional’ tasks were highly popular, and indeed had
been Pascal Sebah’s Les Costumes Popularies de la
Turquie published to critical acclaim in 1873.
John Hannavy
SEDGEFIELD, WILLIAM RUSSELL
(1826–1902)
English photographer
William Russell Sedgefi eld was born in Wiltshire,
England, in 1826, and by the age of sixteen had applied
to Talbot for a licence to practice the calotype as an
amateur, while at the same time pursuing his training
as an engraver. He progressed from calotype to waxed
paper and both wet and dry collodion, and in a lifetime
devoted to the medium, became one of the most criti-
cally acclaimed photographers of his generation. His
acquaintances included the great publishers of photo-
graphic views Francis Frith and Francis Bedford.
Amongst his publications were Photographic Delin-
eations of the Scenery, Architecture and Antiquities of
Great Britain and Ireland, published in several parts in
1854, and The Thames Illustrated with Photographs,
also in several parts (1866). He contributed works to
several photographically illustrated books, most notably
William and Mary Howitt’s Ruined Abbeys and Castles
of Great Britain in 1862 where his images appeared
together with contributions by Bedford, Roger Fenton,
George Washington Wilson, and others.
Sedgefi eld exhibited his work at many exhibitions
from 1854, and from 1859 his many series of stereo-
scopic views were widely distributed. He continued in
professional photography until his retirement c.1890,
with premises in various locations in the London area,
but the topographical nature of his most important work
took him all over England and Wales.
John Hannavy
SELF-PORTRAITURE
The first photographic self-portrait was made just
weeks after Arago announced Daguerre’s invention in
the French Council of Deputies in 1839. Like Niepce,
Daguerre, and Talbot, Hippolyte Bayard had labored for
some time at inventing a permanent photographic image.
He was on the verge of success when Arago made his
dramatic announcement, which conferred fame, as well
as a sizeable monetary stipend, upon Daguerre. Bayard’s
response was a remarkable self-portrait in which he
depicted himself in the nude as a drowned man. On the
back of one print he wrote a note explaining that the
drowned man had ended his life in despair after learn-
ing that Daguerre had beaten him to the acclaim and
the money. He pointed out that the discoloration in his
face and hands were signs of the fl esh’s deterioration,
and warned the viewer of the corpse’s odor. This fi rst
self-portrait was groundbreaking in several respects. It
is the fi rst known self-portrait in the nude by any artist
since Durer (Durer’s 1503 drawing is full frontal nudity,
while Bayard’s groin is covered.) Moreover, there is a
self-directed humor in Bayard’s image that many subse-
quent photographers would echo. To our eyes, Bayard’s
picture seems prophetic not just regarding the images
that other 19th century photographers would produce,
but for the performance art that emerged later in the
twentieth century.
Many photographers, including Bayard, made more
conventional self-portraits in which they presented
themselves as serious people deserving of respect.
Photography was revolutionary in its ability to make
likenesses of people that would outlive them, a privilege
that had previously been reserved for those very few
who could afford to commission their own portraits.
Photographers were no less prone to desires for immor-
tality than anyone else, and accordingly self-portraits
fl ourished. In addition, photographers, like painters,
seized upon the genre as a way of advertising their
abilities, often posing themselves beside their cameras
or photographs. Photographers presented themselves
as serious image-makers, and adopted the head and
shoulders, direct gaze conventions of formal portraiture.
Self-portraits became one mechanism through which
photographers presented themselves as deserving the
status of artists.
However, the self-dramatizing and playful elements
that Bayard introduced also recurred throughout the
19th century. One is tempted to suggest that there is
something in the photographic process itself that en-
courages this kind of plasticity and role-playing. These
behaviors were not, of course, the exclusive prerogative
of photographers, as they predated the birth of photog-
raphy by many centuries. Rembrandt’s self-portraits, for
example, portrayed a man moving through a variety of
social stations, as signaled by his amazing array of hats,