Fountaine de la Sophie, Constantinople
Medium
salted paper print from paper negative
Dimensions
image: 16.8 × 23.3 cm · matted: 40.6 × 50.8 cm
Classification
Photograph
Department
Photography
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
John L. Severance Fund
Accession Number
2001.148
Tags
About this artwork
Arriving in Istanbul (then Constantinople) in 1852, Ernest de Caranza, a French factory engineer, took many photographs during his extensive travels on scientific missions throughout the Asiatic part of the Ottoman Empire. Self-taught as a photographer, he relied on the waxed paper negative process, created his own materials, and formulated an excellent fixative which tended to gray the blacks, giving the images a remarkable transparency in the shadows. In this charming view, he described the su...