Adelphoi Zangaki

Last updated

Adelphoi Zangaki (Zangaki Brothers)
One of the Zangaki brothers.jpg
One of the Zangaki brothers, sitting on a cannon and pointing to the initials G.Z. carved on its barrel, most likely George, 1870s
Born
(Probably) George and Constantinos Zangakis

Dates unknown
DiedUnknown
NationalityGreek
Known forPhotographers
Movement Orientalist

The Adelphoi Zangaki (Zangaki Brothers), known by their probable initials C. and G. Zangaki, [1] [2] were two brothers of Greek origin, active as photographers in Ottoman Egypt from the 1860s through to the 1890s. They specialized in photographing ancient monuments and scenes of everyday life, producing photographic prints for the tourist trade. [3] [4] They occasionally worked with the French photographer Hippolyte Arnoux in Port Said, documenting the works on the Suez Canal. Further, they were among the first commercial photographers to produce large scale images of late 19th- century Egypt.

Contents

Background

Little is known about the Zangaki brothers, except their initials, C. and G., and that they worked out of Port Said and Cairo from around the 1860s through to at least the 1890s. [2] Many of the Zangaki photographs are signed with a brother's initial and/or a place of business, e.g., "C. Zangaki" or "Zangaki, Cairo" or occasionally "A. Zangaki". [5]

For a long time, it was believed that "A. Zangaki" was a single photographer. However, with the discovery of a signboard with the name "Adelphoi Zangaki", it became clear that these were brothers. Scholars believe that their names were George and Constantinos (or Costas), [6] and that they were born on the Greek island of Milos, while others have suggested that they were Cypriot. However, no definitive evidence pertaining to their place and date of birth extists. How they came to learn photography is also unclear. However, shortly after their arrival in Egypt they had become established photographers with studios in Cairo and Port Said.

Early photographers in Egypt

By the 1850s, tourist travel to Egypt created strong demand for photographs as souvenirs. A small group of early photographers, mostly of French origin, made their way to Cairo and the Nile valley to capitalise on this demand. These pioneering photographers included Félix Bonfils (1831–1885); Gustave Le Gray (1820–1884), Emile Béchard (his brother Henri signed some of his photographs; active 1860–1890); the British-Italian brothers Antonio Beato (c. 1832–1906) and Felice Beato (1832–1909) as well as Hippolyte Arnoux (active between 1860 and 1890) and some years later, Gabriel Lekegian (1853–1920). [7]

Career

Photographs taken by the Zangaki brothers are found in tourists' albums assembled in the Middle East in the second half of the 19th century. From their Port Said studio, they were ideally situated to sell to Europeans visiting Egypt as part of a Grand Tour. [7] The Zangaki brothers traveled along the Nile, accompanied by a horse-drawn darkroom wagon to document the Egyptian scenery, architecture and events. [1] Images included views of the pyramids at Giza or the Sphinx and cities, such as Suez or Alexandria, as well of Egyptians going about their daily lives, e.g., a teacher and pupils, men working by the Nile or women at home. [8]

They may have worked with the French photographer Hippolyte Arnoux to document the construction of the Suez Canal. Most scholars believe that Arnoux was the official Suez photographer and that the Zangaki Brothers may have assisted him. However, the precise nature of their relationship is unclear, since Arnoux's biography is just as enigmatic as that of the Zangaki brothers. [1] Their relationship soured in 1874, when Arnoux instigated litigation against the Zangaki Brothers and one Spiridion Antippa, accusing them of usurping his intellectual property. Arnoux was successful, as on 29 June 1876, the Court of Ismailia recognized them as "guilty of usurpation of artistic and industrial property and unfair competition." [6]

In Palestine they photographed areas of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Mar Saba, Mount Tabor and the Jerusalem railway. Some of their original glass negatives as well as prints are in the collection of the Palestine Exploration Fund. [9]

Recognition

Art historian John Hannavy acknowledged that the Zangaki brothers "produced some of the finest images" of the late 19th century in Egypt. [1] Mainly produced for the expectations of the flourishing European tourist trade in Egypt, they are highly prized by historians and collectors for their representations of life at the time. [5]

See also

Related Research Articles

Transport in Egypt is centered in Cairo and largely follows the pattern of settlement along the Nile. The Ministry of Transportation and other government bodies are responsible for transportation in Egypt, whether by sea, river, land or air.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pascal Sébah</span> 19th-century photographer in Constantinople of Armenian and Syrian descent

Pascal Sébah was an Ottoman photographer in Constantinople and Cairo. Best known for his prolific photography of Turkey, Egypt, and Greece, Sébah established the studio that would later become Sébah & Joaillier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Colony, Jerusalem</span> 19th-century American colony in Palestine

The American Colony of Jerusalem was established in the Ottoman Empire in 1881 as a "Christian utopian society" led by American religious leader Horatio Gates Spafford and his Norwegian wife Anne Tobine Larsen Øglende.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francis Frith</span> English photographer

Francis Frith was an English photographer and businessman. Francis Frith & Co., the company he founded in 1860 with the initial goal of photographing every town and village in England, quickly became the largest photographic publishers in the world and eventually amassed a collection of 330,000 negatives covering over 7,000 population centres across Great Britain and Ireland.

Felice A. Beato and Felice Antonio Beato are collective signatures used by the brothers Felice Beato and Antonio Beato, who were both pioneering photographers in the 19th century. They were noted for their depictions of everyday life in Orient.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Robertson (photographer)</span>

James Robertson (1813–1888) was an English gem and coin engraver who worked in the Mediterranean region, and who became a pioneering photographer working in the Crimea and possibly India. He is noted for his Orientalist photographs and for being one of the first war photographers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antonio Beato</span> Italian-British photographer

Antonio Beato, also known as Antoine Beato, was an Italian-British photographer. He is noted for his genre works, portraits, views of the architecture and landscapes of Egypt and other locations in the Mediterranean region. He was the younger brother of photographer Felice Beato (1832–1909), with whom he sometimes worked. Antonio and his brother were part of a small group of commercial photographers who were the first to produce images of the Orient on a large scale.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hippolyte Arnoux</span> French photographer and publisher

Hippolyte Arnoux was a French photographer and publisher. He was one of the first photographers to produce images of Egypt and documented the Suez Canal project with extensive photographs and a publication.

Maison Bonfils was a French family-run company producing and selling photography and photographic products from Beirut from 1867 until 1918, from 1878 on renamed "F. Bonfils et Cie". The Bonfils ran the first and, in their time, most successful photographic studio in the city. Maison Bonfils produced studio portraits, staged biblical scenes, landscapes, and panoramic photographs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Felice Beato</span> Italian-British photographer (1832–1909)

Felice Beato, also known as Felix Beato, was an Italian–British photographer. He was one of the first people to take photographs in East Asia and one of the first war photographers. He is noted for his genre works, portraits, and views and panoramas of the architecture and landscapes of Asia and the Mediterranean region. Beato's travels gave him the opportunity to create images of countries, people, and events that were unfamiliar and remote to most people in Europe and North America. His work provides images of such events as the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and the Second Opium War, and represents the first substantial body of photojournalism. He influenced other photographers, and his influence in Japan, where he taught and worked with numerous other photographers and artists, was particularly deep and lasting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Egyptian National Railways</span> State railways of Egypt

Egyptian National Railways is the national railway of Egypt and managed by the parastatal Egyptian Railway Authority.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Khalil Raad</span>

Khalil Raad was a photographer, known as "Palestine's first Arab photographer." His works include over 1230 glass plates, tens of postcards, and as yet unpublished films that document political events and daily life in Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon over the course of fifty years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pierre Trémaux</span> French architect, photographer and scientific writer (1818–1895)

Pierre Trémaux was a French architect, Orientalist photographer and author of numerous scientific and ethnographic publications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William H. Rau</span>

William Herman Rau was an American photographer who was active primarily in the latter half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. He is best remembered for his stereo cards of sites around the world, and for his panoramic photographs of sites along the Pennsylvania Railroad.

Najib Anton Albina was the master photographer of the Palestine Archaeological Museum and, in that position, took the first original sets of photographs of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Through his positions with the American Colony and Palestine Archaeological Museum, he used photography as a means of recording the history of Christian Palestinian culture as well as the discovery of past cultures in the region. He had a significant impact on the techniques of archeological photographers, especially those who took pictures of the Dead Sea Scrolls, through his contributions to the use of infrared photography.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abdullah Frères</span> Group of three Ottoman brothers, photographers of Armenian descent

The Abdullah Frères were a group of three Ottoman brothers of Armenian descent, Viçen Abdullahyan (1820–1902), Hovsep Abdullahyan (1830–1908), and Kevork Abdullahyan (1839–1918), photographers of international fame during the late Ottoman Empire. They took pictures of scenic views and notable individuals, including sultans. Most of their photography was taken in the Ottoman Empire.

Jean Pascal Sébah was a Syriac-Armenian photographer. The son of Pascal Sébah, he continued the Sébah family's photographic legacy after his father's death in 1886.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gabriel Lekegian</span> Armenian photographer in Ottoman Egypt (1853–1920)

Gabriel Lekegian, also known as G. Lékégian, was an Armenian painter and photographer, active in Constantinople and Cairo from the 1880s to the 1920s. Little is known about his life, but he left an important body of work under the name of his studio ‘Photographie Artistique G. Lekegian & Cie’. With a large number of now historical photographs of Ottoman Egypt, he documented the country at the turn of the 19th century. Among other collections, his photographs are held in the New York Public Library and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

<i>The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia</i> 19th century travelogue by painter David Roberts

The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia is a travelogue of 19th-century Palestine and the magnum opus of Scottish painter David Roberts. It contains 250 lithographs by Louis Haghe of Roberts's watercolor sketches. It was first published by subscription between 1842 and 1849, in two separate publications: The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea and Arabia and Egypt and Nubia. William Brockedon and George Croly wrote much of the text, Croly writing the historical, and Brockedon the descriptive portions.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Hannavy, John (2013) [2008]. John Hannavy (ed.). Zangaki Brothers (active 1870s–1900s). Routledge. p. 1521. ISBN   9781135873271 . Retrieved 24 August 2021.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  2. 1 2 Zangaki Brothers, Luminous-Lint
  3. ↑ C. & G. Zangaki Photographs Collection, 1870–1875, Princeton University Library Finding Aids. Note: The Zangaki Collection Finding Aid at Princeton University lists them as functioning from 1870 to 1875
  4. ↑ RCS Index to Photographers Archived 5 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine , Cambridge University Library. Note: The Royal Commonwealth Society Photographers Index database at Cambridge University lists them as in the 1880s and 1890s.
  5. 1 2 Perez, Nissan N. Focus East: Early photography in the Near East (1839–1885). New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1988, p. 233.
  6. 1 2 Apostolou, Irini. "Photographes Français et Locaux en Orient Méditerranéen au XXIX siècle: Quelques cas de collaboration". Bulletin du Centre de Recherche Français à Jérusalem, Vol. 24, 2013 (translated from French)
  7. 1 2 Jacobson, Ken (2007). Odalisques and Arabesques: Orientalist Photography, 1839–1925. London: Bernard Quaritch Ltd. p. 277. ISBN   978-0-9550852-5-3.
  8. ↑ Cavatorta, Claudia. "I fratelli Zangaki a Port Said", AFT Rivista di Storia e Fotografia, Vol. 44, 2006.
  9. ↑ Collins, Lydia (1981). "Nineteenth-Century Photographs in the Palestine Exploration fund Collection". Palestine Exploration Quarterly. 113 (1): 63–66. doi:10.1179/peq.1981.113.1.63. ISSN   0031-0328.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.