Visual Archive Southeastern Europe - SIBA: A Visual Approach to Explore Everyday Life in Turkish and Yugoslav Cities, 1920s and 1930s

Abstract

The main objective of the Visual Archive Southeastern Europe (VASE) is to assemble historical and contemporary visual materials from this region of Europe. VASE seeks to draw attention to the image as a primary source, to promote visual studies as a technique and method and thereby to enrich predominantly text-based historical-anthropological research. By providing access to different types of images - e.g. photographs and postcards - VASE aims to enhance reflection on (self-)images of Southeastern Europe, both within the academic community as well as in society in general. The database may not be used for commercial purposes. Sarajevo Istanbul Belgrade Ankara - all four cities shared a common past under the Ottoman Empire, and all underwent a period of accelerated modernization and urbanization in the decades before and after World War I when they were incorporated into the new Republic of Turkey and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia respectively. The SIBA project conducted by Prof. Nataša Mišković, Joël László, Milanka Matić and Yorick Tanner, and in collaboration with Prof. Mehmed Akšamija, Cengiz Kahraman, Dr. Ranka Gašić, Miloš Jurišić, Goran Knežević and Kristina Ilić, explores the social, cultural, political and urban development of these cities in the interwar period, focusing on the work of local press photographers