Traces of Ottoman Modernization in Abdullah Fréres' Street Photographs of Istanbul

The history of photography is also the history of modernity and modernization. In other words, it is both an important element and proof of modernity. Street photographs, on the other hand, are visual documents that can present objective images of daily life through the public sphere. This study aims to examine the modernization steps of the Ottoman Empire in the second half of the 19th century through Abdullah Fréres’ Istanbul street photographs and to make a visual analysis of the change in the multinational society structure. Following the invention of photography in 1839, the documentation of Ottoman modernization through photography is as important as written documents in terms of objective history reading. The visual reading was made through street images in this study because street photographs reflect reality directly and provide rich visual data. The reason why Abdullah Fréres’, the court photographer of that era, photographs were preferred is that the siblings took many street photographs in different periods and regions of Istanbul during their careers between 1858 and 1899. The visual analysis was limited to thirteen Istanbul street photographs, as the photography studios of the period were mostly in the Pera region of the capital Istanbul and it was thought that it would be appropriate to bring a geographical limitation to the study. It is thought that the study will contribute to both the theory of photography and the field of history, as it is evidence that a multi-layered visual history reading can be made through the early examples of street photography in the Ottoman capital. As a result of the study, it was found that the street photographs signed by Abdullah Fréres carried traces of the reforms in the second half of the 19th century and this transformation process progressed slowly.