Ali Sami Bey (prob. 1872 – unknown) worked as a photographer in Karyes from 1925 till 1927. He was a ex-colonel and so called aide-de-camp to the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II.

He made black and white photo’s but he was also tinting his work with a pen and Chinese ink. The colouring process damaged the photo’s.

The harbour of Dafni with on the right a kind of lift? Notice that there is no paved road along the coast but a small donkey/mule path. The first road on Athos was build here in 1963, the road from Dafni to Karyes.

Ali Sami was always dressed in his old military uniform. He started his career in the Ottoman army and later became the Imperial photographer for Sultan Abdul Hamid II. Following the Young Turk Revolution of 1908, supporters of the Sultan were purged and in 1909 the Sultan was exiled to Greece. Ali Sami arrived in Thessaloniki, Greece in 1909 and published the newspaper Hak (Right),while in 1916 he published the French newspaper Le droit (The Law). He was nick-named Bahriyeli (sailor).

Chilandariou, with on the right the small aqueduct that leads to the kitchen of the monastery.

Not many people appear on his photographs but in this case the monks, muleteers and pilgrims of Docheiariou posed for the Photographer.

The Russian monastery of Panteleimonos with the green union shaped towers of the church.

The studio of the Kaltsoni brotherhood in Sk. Anna.

More Ali Sami Bey here.

Herman Voogd