A wedding job for one Turkish photographer took a dramatic turn last week, after he ended up in a physical altercation with his client, even breaking his nose upon learning the bride-to-be was only 15 years old.
As reported by the Hurriyet Daily News, Photographer Onur Albayrak has admitted to the attack after learning of the bride’s real age. The story and support for Albayrak has snowballed on social media after it emerged he took action to halt the wedding. The drama unfolded after Albayrak queried the age of the bride, having been enlisted to shoot the ceremony, which was taking place on July 5 at Turgut Özal Nature Park in Malatya, eastern Turkey.
Speaking to the Daily News, he recalled his previous encounter with the groom before the day of the ceremony:
[He] had come to my studio some two weeks ago and was alone. I saw the bride for the first time at the wedding. She was a child, and I felt her fear because she was trembling.
Refusing to continue taking pictures, Albayrak claims his client insisted he was bound by their contract to photograph the wedding. Things soon turned violent when the groom initiated an attack as Albayrak tried to leave. However, the photographer ended up breaking his client’s nose in the commotion. “Child brides are [victims] of child abuse and no power on earth can make me photograph a child in a wedding gown,” he said.
Albayrak has received praise on his own Facebook post addressing the incident. The legal age for marriage is 18 in Turkey; however, child marriage is still a regular occurrence despite the threat of imprisonment for anyone who attempts to marry an underage person.
Lead image used with permission of Onur Albayrak.
I read and understood your argument clearly. I don't appreciate your demeaning tone, especially when you're simply wrong and pretending to know what you're talking about.
Your quote again for context:
"It wasn't until the 1700s that child labor laws started the process of changing things."
The logical conclusion of this statement is that child labor laws had to exist in the 1700s in order for them to have any impact on society.
In fact I have looked it up (I've lectured on Lewis Hine in the past and in the process procured background context on the history of child labor) and there were no large-scale laws that barred children from labor in the 18th century, especially any that would that were far-ranging enough to affect social mores regarding child marriage (a dubious correlation you've made, also without evidence).
*Edited* I pulled out some of my notes to corroborate this point. Here's a quote from Professor James Schmidt, a labor historian focusing on child labor laws:
"The early modern relationship between the state and youthful labor had revolved around compulsion to work, but the nineteenth century brought a monumental reversal. Influenced by the Romantic understanding of childhood innocence, reformers in the industrializing states of Europe and America confronted the new problem of factory-wage work for children. Starting with the Factory Act agitation in Britain in 1802, central government slowly redefined the relationship between and youthful labor towards state compulsion not to work." -James Schmidt "Children and the State" in "The Routledge History of Childhood in the Western World" ed Paula S. Fass (New York: Routledge Press, 2013), 175-176.
I gave you the benefit of the doubt to provide any evidence that I may have missed. The fact that you have yet to provide any, and attempted to deride my reading comprehension instead, shows me that until you do, you're talking out of your ass.
So don't give me this smug horseshit about going beyond Wikipedia in my research, bucko. Put up or shut up.
"Go and look it up"
Yeah, you're totes credible.
For future reference, if you want to direct someone to literature, the general way of doing that is the way that Allen did above.
Of course the literature would have to exist in order for him to direct me to it. Nothing yet...
Could he simply be acting like an ignorant blowhard unable to admit his error?! If so, that would an Internet first!
I love this guy. Hero in my book.