1034
manufacturers. In an 1867 advertisement Ottewill
& Collis state ‘15 years manufacturers to Ross the
Optician. Mr Collis having had upwards of 13 years
experience in Mr Ross’s establishment.’ Ottewill also
employed Patrick Meagher who went on to successfully
establish his own fi rm in 1860.
Most of Ottewill’s cameras can be criticised for
their lack of innovation, but there is no faulting the very
high quality of craftsmanship with which their cameras
were made and a contribution to British camera making
which, in the words of the British Journal Photographic
Almanac of 1898 (p 640) ‘may be regarded as the source
to which the best school of English camera-making
traces its origin’.
Michael Pritchard
See also: Archer, Frederick Scott; Fowke, Francis;
Dodgson, Charles Lutwidge (Carroll, Lewis); and
British Journal Photographic Almanac (1859- ).
Further Reading
Channing, Norman and Dunn, Mike, British Camera Makers. An
A-Z Guide to Companies and Products, Claygate, Parkland
Designs, 1996.
OTTOMAN EMPIRE: ASIA AND PERSIA
(TURKEY, THE LEVANT, ARABIA, IRAQ,
IRAN)
The discovery of photography was publicly announced
in the Ottoman Empire on 28 October 1839, the news
appearing in the government newspaper Takvim-i Vekayi,
published in Istanbul in Turkish, Arabic, French, Greek
and Armenian.
The spread of photography in the lands of the empire
was pioneered by numerous travelers, writers, archae-
ologists, artists and architects (Özendes, 1995, 26).
On 21 October 1839 the French painter Horace Vernet
(1789–1863) and the daguerreotypist Goupil Fesquet
(1817–1878) sailed from Marseille to photograph the
sights of the East. They arrived in Syria on 30 October
and in Alexandria in November. In Egypt they found
that Pierre Gustave Joly de Lotbiniere (1798–1865) had
preceded them and was photographing on the banks of
the Nile. From Egypt they traveled by caravan via Sinai
to Syria, visiting Palestine, Tyre, Saida, Deir El Kamar,
Damascus, Jerusalem, Nazareth, Beirut and Baalbeck,
before travelling to İzmir on the Aegean Sea, arriving
on 8 February (Özendes, 1995, 85).
Joseph Philbert Girault de Prangey (1804–1892), a
student of Islamic architecture, visited the Middle East
between 1842–1845 taking Daguerreotypes of Islamic
buildings and monuments. These pictures were pub-
lished in Monuments Arabes d ‘Egypte de Syrie, et d
‘Asie—Mineure dessinés et mesurés de 1842 à 1845 in
Paris in 1846 (Özendes, 1995, 96).
Excursions daguérriennes: Vues et monuments les
plus remarquebles du globe 1840–1844 published
in Paris by Nicolas Paymal Lerebours contains 114
photographs taken by Fesquet, Lotbiniere and Prangey
(Özendes, 1995, 96).
The French writer Maxime du Camp (1822–1894)
arrived in İzmir in May 1843, and after visiting Ephesus
and other sites in the region traveled to Istanbul, and
from there to Greece, Italy and Algeria. Du Camp’s
illustrated account of this journey entitled Souvenirs
et Paysages d ‘Orient: Smyrne, Ephése, Magnésie,
Constantinople, Scio was published in Paris in 1848
(Özendes, 1995, 98).
Ernest Edouard de Caranza, a French physics and
chemical engineer who worked in Imperial Gunpowder
Factory (Baruthane-i Amire) since 1839, took many
Calotypes in Istanbul between 1852–1854 and presented
an album to the Ottoman palace. During this period he
was given the title of royal photographer (Özendes,
1995, 107).
Alfred Nicolas Normand (1822–1909), who visited
Istanbul in 1852, took Calotypes in which composi-
tion took precedence over technique (Özendes, 1995,
108).
A photograph of Péra taken by the Irish aristocrat
John Shaw Smith (1811–1873) in 1852 is the earliest
known combination of two negatives (Özendes, 1995,
108).
Jacob August Lorent (1813–1884) traveled to North
Africa in 1858 and documented Arab culture, publish-
ing his photographs in Egypten, Alhambra, Tlemsen,
Algier: Photographische Skizzen in Mannheim in 1861
(Özendes, 1995, 148).
Francis Frith (1822–1898) arrived in Egypt in
September 1856, and the photographs he took were
exhibited in England in 1857. The same year he traveled
to the Middle East and traveled through Palestine and
Syria until May 1858. His photographs of both journeys
were published in Egypt and Palestine Photographed
and Described. In late summer 1859 Frith returned to
Egypt and from there traveled to Sina, Petra, Palestine,
Syria, Damascus, Jerusalem, Beirut and Jaffa, photo-
graphing İzmir in 1860. The same year he established
Frith and Co., which became Europe’s largest producer
of photographs. His own portrait in Turkish costume
is on the fi rst page of his album entitled Egypt, Sinai
and Palestine, which is illustrated by 37 photographs
(Özendes, 1995, 149).
The British landscape photographer Francis Bedford
(1816–1894) accompanied Edward Prince of Wales on
his journey to Turkey and the Middle East in 1862, and
in 1863 his photographs appeared in Tour in the East;
Photographic Pictures of Egypt, The Holy Land and