This lecture will introduce the methodological tools used in the dissertation of the presenter with the title of Image and Imagination of the New Ottoman Muslim Woman: Modernization, Photography, and Women in Late Ottoman Istanbul (1913-1924). The dissertation focuses on the role of the camera and photographic practices as catalysts in and for Ottoman Muslim women’s modernization experience. Therefore, photographs from various sources such as private collections, archives, and illustrated journals constitute the main body of primary source material for historical analysis. The lecture unpacks the advantages and disadvantages of using visual material in writing the history of Ottoman cultural and gender history.