53. Today in 1920s Turkey: 18 January 1923 (Old Folks and Old Photos)

(Cartoon, Akbaba or *Vulture/White-Bearded Old Man,” 18 January 1923, no. 13, page 2.)
(Last minute, "it's still January 18 somewhere" edition)

Comments:
Reporting on the newly established rules requiring that official identification cards/documents have photographs attached to them this cartoon depicts people lined up in a government building waiting to renew their IDs. Here, an elderly woman has stepped up to the official who is holding the photograph she submitted for her renewal. Even from our privileged view, we can see that the picture is the silhouette of a younger (or at least an “other”) woman from the one in line.

The text reveals that the bureaucrat is questioning the validity of the photograph, accusing the woman of using someone else’s picture when in reality, as the old woman reveals, it is a picture from her youth. So technically the picture qualifies even though its dated nature defeats the purpose of using a picture for identification. Indeed, the cartoon reveals a loophole in the new regulations which is indicative of the relative (to 2017) novelty of the photographic medium in the 1920s. Of course, photography had been around since the 19th century but serious consideration of what a photograph represents and notions of “currentness” have yet to be sorted out at this time. Indeed, as the cartoon’s text suggests, photography is only right now (well, 94 years ago, today) becoming so widespread that every citizen is expected to have one on their forms of identification.

English:
(Above)
Official identifications are getting photographs
(Below)
— Ma’am this is not a picture of you!..
— I swear this is a photograph from my youth, just stick it on, will you?!..

Türkçe:
(Üstte)
Nüfus tezkerelerine fotoğraf yapıştırılıyor
(Altta)
— Hanım bu senin fotoğrafın değil!..
— Aaa valla evladım benim gençlik resmim, yapıştırıver, ne olur?!..

(Entire page, Akbaba or *Vulture/White-Bearded Old Man,” 18 January 1923, no. 13, page 2.)