This study aims to investigate how individual memories could help build a collective memory, through the case of historical photographs taken at Foto Gagin, a photo studio which was active during the years 1902-1955 in Izmir, Turkey. This study is largely based on photographs that are part of a historical collection of one of the authors. This collection represents a useful tool and platform for the convergence of physically and historically scattered personal photographs and memories. Thus, one of the aims of this study is to create awareness about our visual and cultural heritage through this collection. The collection provides the opportunity to document scattered and forgotten memories where each photograph works as a piece of a complex mosaic, which as a whole represents a collective memory of Izmir's citizens from the 1930s to the 50s. However, the study does not only rely on historical photographs, which by themselves are quite silent. Instead, it is supported by interviews with some of the individuals whom we could track through a descendant of Alejandro Gagin, founder of Foto Gagin. Like many Jewish citizens of Izmir, who decided to immigrate to other parts of the world that offered more prosperity or due to political motives, A. Gagin also left Izmir and passed his studio on to one of his sons, Rafael in 1951. Tracing the past of A. Gagin and people in the photographs took us to faraway lands like Argentina and the USA. Unlike many cases of collective memory, where people "come to remember things that they never personally experienced" (Kihlstrom 2002; Harris 2008), we were able to collect, through interviews, some authentic memories from several individuals that are represented in some of the photographs. This, we believe, will help to create a more realistic collective memory of the period, in general and of Foto Gagin, in particular. The study also demonstrates the unique features of portraits by Foto Gagin and what sets them apart from other contemporary studios in terms of portrait composition and design. Our analysis indicates that A. Gagin, the leading photographer at Foto Gagin, used basic elements, simple lighting, and plain backgrounds to shoot his studio photographs. This is in contrast to some of his contemporaries who used rich or interesting-looking furniture, backgrounds, accessories, and excessive retouching. Gagin's approach to portraits resulted in more realistic pictures of the people who posed in his studio, since additional elements do not interfere with the viewer's gaze and perception of these historical images. Adding up the visual information from various photographs taken at different times yet with the similar lean photographic style of Gagin, handwritten information and notes on the back of the photographs, logos and stamps of the studio, and most importantly, interviews conducted with individuals who are testimony to this period and place makes it possible to build a reliable collective memory of the era.
References
Harris, C. B., Paterson, H. M., & Kemp, R. I. (2008). Memory, 16(3), 213-230.
Kihlstrom, J. F. (2002). PROTEUS, 19(2), 1-6.
