Abdullah Frères

Vichen (later known as Abdullah Şükrü after converting to Islam) began his photographic career touching up photos for Rabach, who opened his photography studio in 1856 in the Bayezid district of Constantinople.

In 1858, when Vichen's younger brother Kevork returned from his studies at the Collegio Armeno Moorat-Raphael in Venice, they and another brother, Hovsep, decided to take over Rabach's photography studio and open their own, called the Abdullah Frères.

[2] In 1863, Sultan Abdulaziz declared the Abdullah Frères as the official court photographers and Outstanding Artists of the City, an epithet they used until the closure of the shop in 1899.

[1] Over their lengthy career, the Abdullah Frères photographed numerous Ottoman sultans, Ottoman statesmen such as Ibrahim Edhem Pasha and Osman Nuri Pasha, international figures such as Mark Twain, scenic views, and more.

A solid body of material was recently discovered in the personal archive of Alexandra C. Vovolini.