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The storefront photo studio, once the natural destination to
commemorate rites of passage like births, graduations and weddings, has long
given way to the preservation of those moments on Facebook and Instagram.
Lately, however, one-stop portrait shops and personal family snapshots have
taken on new significance as collectors’ interest in “found,” “vernacular” or
“outsider” photographs has increased. Decades ago, the Armenian photographer
Maryam Sahinyan (1911-1996) joined her father at Foto Galatasaray, one such
portrait shop in Istanbul, Turkey, churning out portraits after dropping out of
school. Photography was an unusual occupation for a woman in Turkey, and
Sahinyan’s distinct and interesting eye cast a window into the layered and
complicated spectrum of cultures that lived in Istanbul — from the everyday to
the taboo. Tayfun Serttas, an artist in Istanbul, went through thousands of
Sahinyan’s negatives to assemble her first, posthumous exhibition in 2011 at SALT Galata. Highlights from the show — of
subjects ranging from transgendered people and members of disenfranchised
religious and ethnic groups to wealthy women, identical twins, babies and
long-haired beauties — are in the above slideshow.
"An Outsider Photographer, and Surprise Aesthete"
by Esin Göknar / The NEW YORK TIMES
