FROM THE KNOSSOS EXCAVATIONS TO THE RAID OF THE SUBLIME PORTE: A PHOTOGRAPHIC NARRATION BY BAHAETTİN RAHMİ BEDİZ

Bahaettin Rahmi Bediz, one of the prominent Muslim photographers of the nineteenth-century Crete, witnessed many political upheavals including the 1896 Cretan uprising, the Balkan and World wars, the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, the foundation of the Republic of Turkey, and the population exchange between Turkey and Greece.

Bediz was born in Istanbul in 1875. He attended schools in Istanbul and Crete due to his father İbrahim Rahmi Efendi’s civil service appointments in both towns. Following his father’s death, twenty-year-old Bediz dropped out of Mekteb-i Sultânî (Galatasaray High School) and moved to Crete. His interest in photography is believed to have begun by chance when he was once asked to take a photograph of a group who came to his stationery shop in Heraklion.

Bediz’s career is divided into four distinct periods. Between 1896 and 1909, he photographed Crete and published around 200 postcards. Fluent in French, he followed European publications related to his profession, and acquired equipment from Paris, London, and Vienna. Bediz also contributed to the development of photography on the island by organizing contest.

In 1909, due to ongoing severe conflicts on the island, he moved back to Istanbul, and opened a studio called Resne across the Sublime Porte on the historical peninsula.

In 1927, he moved to Izmir, where he was commissioned by various museums as a private photographer, and participated in a number of archeological excavations during the following nine years. From 1936 to 1948, he continued his career in Ankara, working for various institutions such as the Turkish Historical Society and the Ulus Publishing House.

Bediz left many historical photographs behind, as well as an unpublished book on the theory and practice of photography, when he died in Istanbul in 1951. These photographs in SALT Research collections not only provide clues on his personal journey, but also constitute significant documents revealing socio-political aspects of the time.