A small group of early photographers, mostly of French origin, made their way to Egypt and Constantinople to capitalise on this demand.

In 1855 Robertson along with Felice Beato, Charles Langlois and Karl Baptiste van Szatmari travelled to Balaklava, Crimea where they photographed the closing stages of the Crimean War.

[7] In the late 1850s, Robertson produced a number of water-colours with popular Orientalist themes such as carpet-sellers and snake charmers.

The firm of Robertson & Beato was dissolved in 1867, having produced images - including remarkable multiple-print panoramas - of Malta, Greece, Turkey, Damascus, Jerusalem, Egypt, the Crimea and India.

Robertson possibly gave up photography in the 1860s; he returned to work as an engraver at the Imperial Ottoman Mint until his retirement in 1881.