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Hayal & Hakikat: A Handbook of Forgiveness & A Handbook of Punishment

Hayal & Hakikat: A Handbook of Forgiveness & A Handbook of Punishment

by Cemre Yeşil Gönenli

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The photographs in this book depict the hands of prisoners from the early 20th century, drawn from the photograph albums of Abdul Hamid II, the 34th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. Abdul Hamid II had been moved by pseudo-scientific information he read in a crime novel that “any criminal with a thumb joint longer than the index finger joint, is inclined to murder.” To this end, the photographs in this book show the subjects’ hands for the purpose of classification. The fate of the individual prisoners remains unknown as there is no record of the verdict of Abdul Hamid II after viewing the hands awaiting forgiveness.

 

Awards: PHotoESPAÑA 2021 Awards, International category – Winner | Longlisted for Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards 2021 | Shortlisted for Rencontres d’Arles Book Awards 2021 – Historical category |Shortlisted for PhotoBook of the Year in the Aperture Paris PhotoBook Awards 2020.

More about this book

Abdul Hamid II utilised photography as a tool for documenting the modernisation of the Ottoman Empire at the start of the 20th Century. A photography studio was built inside the Yıldız Palace, and albums reproduced and sent across the world as a testament to the progress of the Ottoman Empire. Abdul Hamid II himself rarely left Istanbul but commissioned photographs so he could become acquainted with his own country, otherwise invisible to his eye.

Amongst other things, Abdul Hamid II was obsessed with crime fiction and in the 25th year of his reign, he ordered all murder convicts to be photographed with their hands visible, in preparation for a planned amnesty dependent on the length of their thumb joints. They are presented in the book in categories – those chained with iron bracelets and those without. Cemre Yeşil Gönenli has cropped out the faces of the subjects so their emotional state is ambiguous.

Hayal & Hakikat (translated as 'Dream & Fact'), by Cemre Yeşil Gönenli, takes the form of two booklets ⁠— A Handbook of Forgiveness & A Handbook of Punishment ⁠— which can be viewed side by side. The 'Dream' of the title refers to the inmates' desire for release and the 'Fact,' their actual circumstances. The fate of the individual prisoners remains unknown as there is no record of the verdict of Abdul Hamid II after viewing the hands awaiting forgiveness.

The book is a result of the workshop 'Interpreting the Encyclopedia of Istanbul with Photographs' organised by Geniş Açı Project Office and SALT in May 2019. Cemre Yeşil Gönenli found the story of this archive of crime photographs in this unfinished encyclopedia by Reşat Ekrem Koçu. She then went on to investigate the images preserved in Istanbul University's Library Collection of Rare Books within the albums of The Yıldız Palace Photography Collection.

Hayal & Hakikat is dedicated to those in contemporary times who are arbitrarily detained.

Published September 2020
(Note: copies shipped from US)
Co-Edition with FiLBooks
210 x 157 mm
3 book blocks (160 pages + 64 pages + 16 pages)
112 duotone images
Ziczac hardcover bound
Essay by Refik Akyüz Translated by Orhan Cem Çetin
ISBN 978-1-910401-50-7

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  • Cemre Yeşil Gönenli is a photographer, artist, and visual storyteller based in Istanbul. She teaches and writes about photography and runs a small publishing house and photobook shop called FiLBooks in Istanbul.