Almost fifty photographs in the Artamonoff photograph collection provide exceptional information on the market gardens (bostans) of Istanbul from the 1930s and 1940s. Many of these gardens were located in the vicinity of the Byzantine architectural monuments that Artamonoff systematically recorded with his camera. For more information, see the Nicholas V. Artamonoff Collection online exhibit.
Additional photographs taken by the Byzantine Institute during the restoration of Fenari İsa Mosque (Lips Monastery) beginning in the 1950s and of the city walls by Cyril Mango from 1979 provide a broader chronological context for the transformation of the urban space in the second half of the twentieth century.
The exhibit is organized geographically rather than chronologically, moving from the environs of Fenari İsa Mosque (1930s–1960s) to the the broader intramural agricultural landscape, and from there toward the city walls and extramural suburbs. More information on the bostans of Istanbul can be found at “City and Agriculture: Studying and Preserving the Historic Gardens of Istanbul.”
Curated by Aleksandar Shopov, William R. Tyler Fellow, 2012–2014
Exhibit Items
Nicholas Artamonoff, View from the minaret, May 1937.
Photograph by Robert Van Nice, 1939.
Photograph by Arthur Kingsley Porter, 1940.
Photograph taken during the Byzantine Institute restorations, 1961.
Photograph taken during Byzantine Institute restorations of Fenari İsa Mosque, 1964.
Photograph by Nicholas Artamonoff, 1930s.
Nicholas Artamonoff, remains of Marmara sea walls at Samatya, looking toward the sea, March 1936.
Nicholas Artamonoff, View of the land walls and the northwest tower at Yedikule, seen from the southwest, June 1935.
Photograph by Nicholas Artamonoff, February 1937.
Photograph by Nicholas Artamonoff, Summer 1938.
Photograph by Cyril Mango, 1979.
Photograph by Nicholas Artamonoff, October 1936.
Photograph by Nicholas Artamonoff, Spring 1937.
Market gardens photographed by Cyril Mango, 1979.
Nicholas Artamonoff, View of the construction of İnönü football stadium, Dolmabahçe Camii, and market gardens and orchards, 1940s.