Snapshot photography and photographic representation in the Ottoman Empire: The Servet-i Fünun example

This thesis explores the class character of photographic representation in the Ottoman Empire between 1896 and 1901, focusing on the illustrated journal Servet-i Fünun as a primary source. During this period—which can be described as the journal's "golden age"—photography emerged as a powerful visual medium embedded within broader processes of modernization, governance, and class formation. Rather than a neutral documentary form, photography in Servet-i Fünun functioned as a tool of bourgeois visual pedagogy, shaping how readers perceived themselves, society, and the Empire. Drawing on theoretical frameworks from Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, Antonio Gramsci, and Jonathan Crary, the thesis situates photography within the visual technologies of modern statecraft and cultural production. It examines how Servet-i Fünun—through its photographic contests, editorial policies, and aesthetic norms—trained a literate, urban readership to internalize bourgeois values of order, legibility, and modernity. These practices filtered participation through technical requirements and financial access, effectively restricting visual representation to privileged social classes. Across three chapters, the study analyzes photography's role in the late Ottoman Empire, the journal's role in building a bourgeois visual sphere, and the use of snapshots as tools of symbolic power and cultural distinction. Ultimately, the thesis argues that photography in this context did not merely reflect Ottoman modernity, it actively produced it through class-specific regimes of vision.