190. Today in 1920s Turkey: 1 June 1926 (Announcement for a Photography Competition)
English
We Are Reaching Out to Photography Enthusiasts
We are starting a photography competition from this issue onwards and we invite our photography-enthusiast readers from every corner of our country to action. The photographs must depict pretty landscapes, predicaments, and/or dress and provide more-or-less beautiful scenes. As long as they are clear, all sizes of pictures can be included in the competition. We will start publishing the good pictures beginning with our August issue. There is a reward of 10 lira for the best and 5 lira for the second best one. Additionally, we will reward 6-month subscriptions to the owners of each of the photographs we published.
Each issue of The Monthly Digest will include a few competitions along these lines. Ideas submitted by readers about the organization of the competition, if approved by the editorial board, are taken into consideration.
Türkçe
Fotoğraf Meraklılarına Hitab Ediyoruz
Bu nüshamızdan itibaren bir fotoğraf musabakası açıyoruz ve memleketin her köşesindeki fotoğraf meraklısı karilerimizi faaliyete davet ediyoruz. Fotoğrafların güzel manzaralar, vaziyetler, kıyafetler tasvir etmesi ve az çok levha-yı hüsni vermesi lazımdır. Net olmak şartıyla her boyda resim musabakaya dahil olabilir. Resimlerin iyilerini Ağustos nüshamızdan itibaren neşretmeğe başlayacağız. En iyi resme on, ikinciye beş lira makafat var. Bunlar haricinde neşrettiğimiz resim sahiplerinden her birine altışar aylık abonemizi hediye edeceğiz.
Aylık Mecmua’nın her nüshasında bu yolda birkaç musabaka bulunacaktır. Karilerimiz tarafından musabaka tertibi hakkında verilen fikirlerde, heyet-i tahririyece muvaffak görüldüğu taktirde nazarı dikkate alınır.
Comments:
This announcement is located on the final page of the monthly illustrated gazette, Aylık Mecmua (The Monthly Digest). Being only the third issue of this magazine, it is possible to view this competition as a means of generating interest in the nascent publication. One effective way of creating demand or standing out among other (perhaps more established) journals is by activating the readership by encouraging their participation. In this way, readers become more invested in the product and its longevity. The invitation to submit photographs is itself embedded in a column entitled “Alone with Our Readers” (Karilerimizle Başbaşa), which underscores the reader/consumer-facing objectives of the paper’s inclusive initiative.
Indeed, the above competition (or musabaka) is one of several advertised on the very same page, each of which promises to publish successful contributions (photographs and written responses) and award cash prizes to the top submissions. For instance, an anecdotal, moralizing “fairy tale” (or peri masalı) ends with an offer to award 5 liras to anyone who can prove that they are saving their money instead of spending it on luxury goods. Another competition asks readers to submit “quick witted” remarks from their children. In return, the best remark will be rewarded a one-year subscription to the magazine and smaller cash prizes are promised for runners-up.
The announcement for the photograph competition, translated above, is accompanied with a series of requirements for the event. The notice delineates the general criteria for submissions including the subject matter, quality, and size of the pictures. These qualifications are followed by a schedule for how the competition will unfold; what to expect; and winner compensation. In this way, the invitation is meant to entice readers to send “beautiful” pictures to the journal. The potential of “seeing” their submissions printed on the pages of the publication would likewise incentivize the further, repeated purchase of the journal for several months.
