How to Cite

Hyde Nolan, Erin: Two-Faced: Translations of a Portrait of Abdülhamid II, in Troelenberg, Eva-Maria, Schankweiler, Kerstin and Messner, Anna Sophia (Eds.): Reading Objects in the Contact Zone, Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing, 2021 (Heidelberg Studies on Transculturality, Volume 9), p. 35–41. https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.766.c10399

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https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.766
ISBN 978-3-96822-049-9 (PDF)
ISBN 978-3-96822-050-5 (Hardcover)
ISBN 978-3-96822-051-2 (Softcover)

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06/10/2021

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Authors

Erin Hyde Nolan

Two-Faced

Translations of a Portrait of Abdülhamid II

Abstract In 1869, the Abdullah Frères studio in Istanbul made a portrait of the Ottoman Prince Abdülhamid Effendi. When Abdülhamid II ascended the throne in 1876, this photograph was copied, appropriated, and dis­seminated in various formats. One such carte-de-visite depicts the sultan with a full beard when he sports only a mustache in the original image. The manipulation of this image provides a lens for understanding portrai­ture as a medium that embodies multiple and subjective identities (even of the same person) that also move across material platforms and cultur­al borders. By tracing the translation and cross-cultural circulation of the Abdullah Frères image, this chapter reveals networks of exchange as for­mative to the imperial portrait photograph.

Keywords Portrait, Photograph, Translation, Cross-cultural, Imperial