[Studio portrait of models wearing traditional clothing from the province of Touna (Danube), Ottoman Empire]

Pascal Sebah was a pioneering photographer in Constantinople (now Istanbul) in the late 19th century. He was born in Istanbul to an Armenian family and began his career as a photographer in the early 1850s. Sebah quickly gained recognition for his work, which included portraits, landscapes and architectural photographs. He became particularly famous for his images of Ottoman architecture, which were widely distributed throughout Europe and helped shape Western perceptions of the Ottoman Empire. Sebah's studio, which he founded in 1857, became one of the most important photographic studios in Constantinople, attracting clients from all over the Ottoman Empire. Today, Sebah's photographs are highly prized by collectors and considered important historical documents of Ottoman society and culture.