Pascal Sébah was born in Istanbul, then the capital of the Ottoman Empire, to a Syrian father and an Armenian mother.

[3] Sébah's studio was known as ''El Chark (meaning "The Orient"), situated at 439 Grande Rue de Pera in the center of the city and close to the embassies and hotels where tourists met.

By the second half of the 19th century, tourist travel to Egypt had created a strong demand for photographs as souvenirs.

[2] He established a valuable working relationship with Turkish painter and archeologist Osman Hamdi Bey, taking photographs as part of the artist's preparation, and in which he experimented with light and shade.

[6] In turn, Hamdi Bey selected Sébah to illustrate his text on the popular costumes worn by Turkish and other ethnic groups, entitled Les Costumes Populaires de la Turquie en 1873: ouvrage publié sous le patronage de la Commission impériale ottomane pour l'Exposition universelle de Vienne and published in 1873.