Artamonoff’s Istanbul was not all about monumental walls, finely carved sculpture, newly discovered frescoes, dark interior spaces, and crumbling structures. He has seen in those the juxtaposition of the old and the new. His lens turned to traditional crafts, shops, markets, and festivals, children working, playing, and posing for his camera, modern cityscapes dotted with Byzantine and Ottoman architectural landmarks. His photographs present us a city at the threshold of major urban and social transformation.
Based on the exhibit Artamonoff: Picturing Byzantine Istanbul, 1930–1947, organized by the Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civlizations (RCAC) in conjunction with the Third International Sevgi Gönül Byzantine Studies Symposium. © 2013-2014, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington DC, Trustees for Harvard University, all rights reserved.