A Road Story

180 Years of Photography

At the 180th anniversary of invention of photography and the first photography trip that took place in 1839, A Road Story: 180 Years of Photography exhibition brought together interpretations and perspectives of photographers who explored the same route with today’s techniques.

French painter Émile Jean Horace Vernet, painter Charles Marie Bouton who is among the inventors of Diorama technique, and daguerreotypist Frédéric Auguste Antoine Goupil-Fesquet depart from the Port of Marseille in October 1839 to take photographs and return to Marseille six months later, in April 1840 passing from Livorno, Malta, Syros, Paros, Naxos, Santorini, Alexandria, Cairo, Luxor, Suez, Mount Sinai, Gaza, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Nablus, Sayda, Deir Al Qamar, Damascus, Tripoli, Baalbek, Beirut, Larnaca, Rhodes, Kos, İzmir, Dardanelles, İstanbul and Rome.

Frédéric Auguste Antoine Goupil-Fesquet conveyed his impressions about this journey in his book, Voyage d’Horace Vernet en Orient that would be published in 1843.

At the 180th anniversary of this first known group photography trip, the exhibition curated by Engin Özendes featured the artists Coşkun Aral, Laleper Aytek, Ali Borovalı, Murat Germen, Sinan Koçaslan, Yusuf Sevinçli, Alp Sime, Lale Tara, Serkan Taycan and Cem Turgay. The photographs they took during their trips to the stops of the earlier journey reflected a contemporary take on these cities with rich histories.