Transnationalistic memories: Frédéric Boissonnas’ photographic construction of a Greek-Christian European Thessaloniki in Salonique et ses basiliques (1919)

Abstract

Frédéric Boissonnas’ album, Salonique et ses basiliques, captures the city at a very precise moment in its history. The album’s photographs were taken between 1912 and 1913, that is, just at the end of the Ottoman and the beginning of Greek rule, but before the great fire of 1917 that destroyed the city centre, removing virtually all traces of the Turkish and Jewish quarters. The album also predates the forced exchange of Muslim and Christian populations in 1923 that finally brought the transculturalism of the city to an abrupt end. Through a close reading of Boissonnas’ photographs, within the theoretical framework of past transnationalistic and present-day transcultural memories, this article argues that political and ideological allegiances directed the creation, dissemination and consumption of an artistic product. The article concludes with a reflection on the city’s return to its transcultural roots.