Art of photography in the Early Republican Period: Ideology and construction

The continuation of the legacy inherited from the Ottoman Empire, with the use of photography that supports the state policies of the Early Republican Period, has been effective in the spread of photography in Turkey and its becoming visible as an art discipline. Art has been one of the dominant instruments in forming the ideals and narrative of the Republic of Turkey and in the construction of the nation state and social memory. Within the scope of the thesis, the role of photography in this construction process was investigated, and the contributions of the works to amateur photography and the art of photography were examined. Studies on photography, especially through state institutions, are handled by making use of the synthesis of semiotic and contextual methods. Due to the relationship of photography with the socio-cultural context, the photographic understanding of the Early Republican Period has been evaluated in connection with concepts such as cultural and social memory, ideology, power and discourse. The investments and social policies of the Republic of Turkey in fields such as industry, agriculture, defense, aviation and education, almost all of which were "new", were attempted to be introduced. On the other hand, photographers contributed both to this process and to amateur photography and art of photography with the photographs they took. In addition to state institutions, newspapers and periodicals of the period also attempted to make photography visible and widespread in Turkey as an art discipline.