It is not difficult to posit the Abdullah Frères photography as one of the most distinct manifestations of Middle Eastern or \"Oriental\" modernity. Images like this one are some of the earliest examples of documentary street photography produced anywhere. The proclivity towards fragmentation, movement and chance sets the architectural photography of this firm apart from its more rigid European modes of representation. The Abdullah Frères photographs are \'inclusive\' rather than \"filtered\" representations. Here we see not only people of different social standing in active engagement with the camera, but also the combination of historical architecture with elements of Ottoman modernizing project (the tram line in the foreground). |
