BERGGREN, Guillaume Gustave
Guillaume Gustave Berggren (1835-1920) was a Swedish photographer. Apprenticed to a carpenter in 1850, he left Sweden in 1855, studied photography in Berlin, and from 1866 onwards lived and worked in Turkey. In the early 1870s he opened a photographic studio in the Grand Rue de Pera.
He photographed passers-by as well as officials, street scenes in Constantinople, landscapes, ruins, all the important locations around the Bosporus, infrastructure works such as the railway to the interior, and current events such as the inauguration of the Orient Express in 1883.
During the 1890s, Berggren made a series of extraordinary portraits of people and professions in the Ottoman capital: bakers, street vendors, dockers and prostitutes. In this panorama an enchanting view of the Old City and the Golden Horn unfolds from a standpoint in Galata. The photographer’s technique renders even minute details of the buildings and vessels with wonderful precision.
Written by Ioli Vingopoulou
