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Why has the literature on Ottoman subjecthood focused on inclusivity and equality, and why have denaturalization and the limits of Ottoman belonging not received attention? Why does Ottoman photography literature focus on studios run by Armenians in the empire's commercial centers, but not on how the state appropriated their labor in the provinces? This talk brings two strands together and examines how the camera and the law was employed in the context of Armenian transatlantic migration. As the government of Abdülhamid II linked outbound, temporary labor migration to methods for permanently uprooting Ottoman Armenian subjects, an 1896 decree permitted Armenians to emigrate to the United States, only if they renounced their Ottoman subjecthood, sold any property they owned, and submitted identity photographs. This decree quickly transformed what began as a temporary labor migration for men in the late 1880s, many of whom were motivated to return after earning money to manage their property or support their families, into a permanent resettlement. The talk first places this decree within the context of late nineteenth-century subjecthood reforms, mainly the 1869 Ottoman Law of Nationality, but also illustrates how it extended beyond its original scope. The discussion then explores how seemingly personal images acquired official or bureaucratic functions as migration photographs but also challenged the uniformity and serial nature of typical identity photos, since they were family snapshots and studio portraits. By focusing on the simultaneous process of erasure and documentation, I highlight the intricate relationship between state photography and imperial subjecthood as a precarious legal status. To situate photography as a broader technology in bureaucracy, I start with how police appointed as “officers of photography” took photos of some migrating Armenians. The talk will end by returning to the visual images taken by local Armenian photographers to search subversion: how intimate and caring side of family photography resisted standardization and surveillance?Hazal Özdemir is historian of the late Ottoman Empire, with a focus on migration, citizenship, and visual documentation. She is currently a Junior Research Fellow at the Central European University’s Institute for Advanced Study in 2026-2027. Before coming to IAS CEU, Hazal was a Manoogian Postdoctoral Fellow in Armenian History at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and earned her Ph.D. in History from Northwestern University in 2024. Her research has been supported by organizations such as the American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT), the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, SALT Research, and the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR). Hazal is working on her first monograph, Framing the Transit: Armenian Transatlantic Mobility and Imperial Regimes of Subjecthood.
Image: Ottoman State Archives, Istanbul; DH.TMIK.M.243.49: Armegin, her children Arsine and Serkis were emigrating to the U.S. on April 28, 1906 from Erzincan.
RSVP Agnes Bendik at [email protected]
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Nádor utca 15, Budapest 1051, Magyarország, Nádor utca 15, Budapest 1051, Magyarország, Budapest, Hungary
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