Tarihin merkezine seyahat: Fotograf ve Osmanli köklerinin yeniden kesfi (1886): Ömer M. Koç Koleksiyonu.

New Turkish Paperback. 4to. (30 x 24 cm). Edition in Turkish. 176 p., b/w and color ills. The Turkish volume of the exhibition. In conjunction with the exhibition, the book examines the locations where the Ottoman Empire was founded, and the meanings attributed to these in the past and in the nineteenth century. It includes articles by expert researchers and academicians, Selim Deringil, T.G. Otte, Sinan Kuneralp, Ahmet Ersoy (co-curator), Deniz Türker (co-curator), Beatrice St. Laurent, Resat Kasaba, and Berin Gölönü. In the articles, they study the foundation myths, the relationship among history, memory and representation through nomads of Anatolia, monuments, and architectural works in the earliest settlements of the empire as well as late 19th century European-Ottoman diplomatic relations. In addition, many of the photographs and artifacts from the exhibition can be found as high-quality reproductions in an addendum in the book. Ottoman Arcadia focuses on three volumes of photography albums commissioned by Sultan Abdulhamid II via an official expedition in 1886, which were gifted to the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck. The original photographs bearing handwritten informative captions in Ottoman Turkish and French on them will be on display for the first time alongside with the documents, images, and publications from various collections. The album photographs document dramatic landscapes, towns, monuments of the early Ottoman settlements like Yenisehir, Sogut, Bozuyuk; and the first capital of the empire, Bursa. The native inhabitants of the region ¿particularly the last remaining members of the semi-nomadic Turkmen tribes (yörüks) are also recorded in the albums. Through the strong, persuasive capacity of photography, the exhibition reassert foundational myths and authenticate the remote tribal origins of the ottoman dynasty. Following the documentary traces of the 1886 Expedition, Ottoman Arcadia investigates the ways in which the layered deposit of memories attached to the land of Ottoman origins was reclaimed through the agency of photography.