author
Carla Serena
d. 1884
A 19th-century travel writer and photographer, she crossed parts of the Caucasus, Persia, and the Ottoman world and turned those journeys into vivid books for European readers. Her life combined curiosity, adventure, and a rare determination to report from places few women of her time were expected to see.
1 Audiobook
Schetsen uit den Kaukasus De Aarde en haar Volken, 1887
by Carla Serena
About the author
Born in Belgium in 1820 as Caroline Hartog and later known as Carla Serena, she became a journalist, travel writer, and photographer whose work stood out in the late 1800s. She is best known for writing about her travels through the Caucasus, Persia, and nearby regions, bringing distant places to readers in France and beyond.
Her journeys were unusual for the period, especially for a woman traveling so widely on her own. She published travel accounts including De la Baltique à la Caspienne and Mon voyage: souvenirs personnels, de la Baltique à la Caspienne, building a reputation for firsthand observation and strong personal voice.
She died in 1884. Today, she is remembered as one of the notable women travel writers of the 19th century, as well as an early female photographer whose work linked travel, reporting, and visual documentation.