Poetics and politics of photography: The representation of Japan in the photography collection of Abdulhamid II

Abstract

This thesis, pertaining to the photograph albums of Japan in the photography collection of Abdulhamid II, focuses primarily on the political and commercial use of photography tehnology as a mcans for the representation strategics of the "modern" state ad society. The thesis concerns how the photographic techiques and technologies were introduced into Japan and how the photography gained a commercial mening by virtue of the individual enterprises. The photographic careers of James Robertson and Felice Beato are examples of the transnational exchanges of images, ideas, techologies between the Qttoman Empire and Japan. The politicization of photography in the Ottoman Empire during the Hamidian period, was explored together with the notion of court photographer through the cse of Abdullah Fréres. The photographic of Ogawa Kazuma, Tamamura, Kozaburo, and Kusakabe Kinbei whose photographs convey the representations of Merji Japan to the Ottoman Empire, are treated with regard to the commercial and millitary commissions. Focusing on the five albums from Japan in the photography collection of Abdulhamid II, this study intends to construe the photographers, the physical presentations, and the subjects of these photography albums in the context of visual representation strategies of Japan of the Ottoman Empire within the transnational politics of photography through a multilingual archival research.