= Robertson, James (c.1813-88; English) & Beato, Felice (c.1834-1906; Italian/English)
Albums of photographs containing their work:
Clifford, Robertson & Beato Photographs of Spain, Greece & Turkey {c.1860} SLV [PH]
Frith, Robertson & Beato Photographs of Palestine & Egypt {1860} SLV [PH]
Robertson trained as an engraver, and was employed as Chief Engraver to the Imperial Ottoman Mint in Constantinople from 1841-81. After developing an interest in photography, he formed a partnership with Beato in 1853 or 1854, and the firm remained in operation until 1867, producing views of Malta, Greece, the Middle East etc., and also documenting the final stages of the Crimean War (1855). Robertson, who appears to have given up photography in his later years, died in Japan, where he moved in 1882.
Felice Beato, whose brother Antonio (1835-1906) was also a photographer, took notable documentary photographs of the Indian Rebellion (1857) and the Second Opium War in China (1860), and later worked in Japan and Burma.
Refs.
For biographical details (including dates given above), references and reproductions, see John Hannavy (ed.), Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography, Routledge, 2008, Vol.I, pp.127-28 (for the Beato Brothers, and Vol.2, pp.1200-1202 (article on Robertson; by B.& H.Hemisch); see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Robertson_(photographer); https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felice_Beato (accessed 6 Nov.2020)