Constantine Column c. 1870 - 1875

Pascal Sébah created this albumen print of the Constantine Column in Istanbul sometime in the late 19th century. The image documents a monument with a long and complex history, one that reflects the city’s own shifts in cultural and political power. Built in 330 AD to mark Constantinople’s inauguration as the new Roman capital, the column predates the Ottoman conquest by over a thousand years. As such, it carries deep symbolic weight. Sébah’s decision to photograph the column at a time when Ottoman power was waning suggests an interest in the layers of history embedded in the city’s architecture. The crumbling buildings around the base of the column could be interpreted as a commentary on the state of the Ottoman Empire itself. To understand the image more fully, we might consult photographic archives, travel literature, and histories of Istanbul to explore the monument’s changing significance over time. The image prompts us to ask what it means to inherit a history of conquest and re-interpretation.