Hayal & Hakikat (2. Edition) by Cemre Yeşil Gönenli

FiLBooks and Fraglich Publishing are proud to dedicate the second edition of this book, a silent protest written into history, to the ongoing resistance in Turkey to reclaim our democratic rights.

The photographs depict the hands of prisoners from the early 20th century, drawn from the photograph albums of Abdul Hamid II, the 34th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. Abdul Hamid II utilised photography as a tool for documenting the modernisation of the Ottoman Empire at the start of the 20th Century. A photography studio was built inside the Yıldız Palace and albums reproduced and sent across the world as a testament to the progress of the Ottoman Empire. Abdul Hamid II himself rarely left Istanbul but commissioned photographs so he could become acquain-

ted with his own country, otherwise invisible to his eye. Amongst other things, Abdul Hamid II was obsessed with crime fiction and in the 25th year of his reign, he ordered all murder convicts to be photographed with their hands visible, in preparation for a planned amnesty. He has been moved by pseudo-scientific information he had read in a crime novel that “any criminal with a thumb joint longer than the index finger joint, is inclined to murder”. 

The photographs in the “Hayal” (Dream) section of the project show the subjects’ hands for the purpose of classification. Whereas in the “Hakikat” (Fact) section, we see chained prisoners who are all sentenced to death —having nothing to do with the amnesty in question. Cemre Yeşil Gönenli, has cropped out the faces of the subjects so their emotional state is ambiguous. The ‘Dream’ of the title refers to the inmates’ desire for release and the “Fact’, their actual circumstances. The fate of the individual prisoners remains unknown as there is no record of the verdict of Abdul Hamid II after viewing the hands awaiting forgiveness. 

Hayal and Hakikat is dedicated to those in contemporary times who are arbitrarily detained in today’s Turkey.

Hayal & Hakikat won the ‘Award for Best Photography Book of the Year’ in the international category at PHotoESPAÑA 2021 Awards and the ’Best Published Book Award' at the 8th Singapore International Photography Festival. The book was also shortlisted for the ‘Photobook of the Year’ category in the 2020 Paris Photo Aperture Foundation Photobook Awards and the ‘Historical Book of the Year’ at The Rencontres d'Arles Book Awards 2021, and longlisted for Kraszna-Krausz Photography Book Awards 2021.

Hayal & Hakikat: A Handbook of Forgiveness & A Handbook of Punishment (2. Edition)
by Cemre Yeşil Gönenli
Essay by Refik Akyüz Translated by Orhan Cem Çetin
Published April 2025
Co-published by FiLBooks & Fraglich Publishing

210 x 157 mm
3 book blocks (160 pages + 64 pages + 16 pages)
112 duotone images
Ziczac hardcover bound
ISBN 978-3-9505064-2-6