Photograph of Pembe Mehmet Çırak and Ahmet Giritlioğlu no. 027

Photograph of a couple in wedding dress. It was taken by a well known photographer, M. Fevzi Akarsu. The background is the interior of a room with a window. The bride is Pembe Mehmet Çırak (1887-1958). The photograph was taken in 1930, in honour of her second marriage, 15 days after the marriage of her daughter. She wears a whitish dress, with an opening in front down to the waist and closed with a series of buttons arranged in three groups of four buttons. Just below the buttons, at the waist, there is a belt of the same cloth closed with a small buckle. The front panel of the dress is of a different, lighter fabric, white with narrow vertical pleats. The skirt has broad pleats (eteg pastalı, Turk. etek = skirt, pasta = pleat, fold) and ends just below the knees. The sleeves are long and end in cuffs. The stockings are dyed black and the button bar shoes are black and white, with low heels. The bride, at the age of 43, is a plump woman with black hair undulating on the front and with long trails falling over the shoulders. Her headdress consists of a high crown ornamented with handmade flowers of the same fabric as that of the wedding dress. At the back of the crown is attached a white veil which falls down to the elbows. The wedding attire is complemented with jewels: a ribbon with a bendo (golden coin of five pounds value, in Greek pentóliro) and smaller coins around the neck, earrings with a spherical hanging element, and a double ring on the right hand, which holds a bunch of roses. The left hand is resting on the shoulder of the bridegroom, who is standing on her left side. The fingernails are dyed with henna. Her eyes are bright, the eyebrows dark, probably painted in black; the lips are also painted, presumably dark red. The groom is Ahmet Giritlioğlu (1882-1935); he has short-cut hair and moustache with its ends turned upwards. He wears a white striped shirt with collar and separate pieces on the shoulders. The front part with the buttons is also a separate rectangular piece with yet another narrow piece sewn on its lower part above the waist. The cuffs of the long sleeves are folded over so that one can see the lower part of the sleeves of the knitted woollen flannel garment worn underneath. There is also a second collar to be seen inside the collar of the shirt. The black, loom-woven knee-breeches are covered at the waist by a white woollen sash with black stripes. The stockings, which meet the breeches just below the knee, are knitted with dark grey yarn. His black shoes are elastic-sided (lastikli kuntura). The costume is complemented with a watch with long chain (köstekli saat); the chain (köstek) is hanging from the neck down to the knees and turns upwards to the waist sash, in which the watch is hidden. Considering the period (1930), the groom’s attire is very traditional in contrast to the bride’s dress, which looks quite modern. It may be noted that in almost all examples of wedding photographs in Aziz Damdelen’s collection, but also in other old wedding photographs, the bride is shown standing on the right side of the groom; on the contrary, in Greek weddings the bride stands always on the left side of the groom. Source: Mehmet Yorgancı ailesi. Village: Kiados (Çatoz), Mesaoria, Famagusta District.