A Road Story

At the 180^th anniversary of invention of photography and the first photography trip that took place in 1839, A Road Story: 180 Years of Photography exhibition brings together interpretations and perspectives of photographers who explore 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 6 months later, in April 1840 passing from Livorno, Malta, Syros, Paros, Naxos, Santorini, Alexandria, Cairo, Suez, Gaza, Jerusalem, Nablus, Nazareth, Acre, Saida, Deir Al Qamar, Damascus, Tripoli, Beirut, Larnaca, Rhodes, Kos, Izmir, Dardanelles and Istanbul. At the 180^th anniversary of this first known group photography trip, the exhibition curated by Engin Özendes features 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 reflect a contemporary take on these cities with rich histories.

The exhibition catalog features a curatorial text by Engin Özendes, which focuses on the journey that took place 180 years ago, including Frédéric Auguste Antoine Goupil-Fesquet’s impressions about this journey published in his book, Voyage d’Horace Vernet en Orient. The catalog also includes personal impressions of the artists who visited different cities to take photographs for this exhibition. The photographs that they took are accompanied by the first photography attempts published in Fesquet’s book.

Publication Date: 2019
Number of Pages: 283
ISBN: 978-605-4642-89-2