It seems as if I have known the name Ara Guler all my life, at least from my high school days. He was a well-known photographer going back to the 1950s in my memory. I have never met Ara Guler although I have seen him on several occasions. A scruffy looking Istanbulite with an eye that was made to see the city. He was known as the eye of Istanbul, and rightly so. He was a prominent name and personality with Armenian heritage and was loved and admired by most for his work and for providing visions of Istanbul that was slowly disappearing.
He started working for Yeni Istanbul newspaper in 1950 and his work was quickly recognized as outstanding. He received commissions from domestic and foreign publications, traveled to many parts of the world, photographed celebrities, and joined Magnum with the invitation of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Marc Riboud.
Although Guler photographed many faces and places, in black-and-white or color, his most significant works for me are those of Istanbul in black-and-white. It is perhaps because I felt I knew the places and the faces he photographed. The narrow cobblestone streets, old wooden houses, street merchants, kids playing on the streets were familiar to us all. In fact, I was born in such a house on a street with big stones carefully laid to sit snugly against each other. I have seen the sellers going by with trays of yogurt carefully balanced on sturdy wooden support on their shoulders; the ever-present simitci, sellers of the typical street snack similar to bagels; porters carrying huge loads on their backs balanced on special shoulder supports. So, when I see a photograph by Ara Guler of these characters, I remember the places where I saw those faces.
He won many awards, showed his work at prestigious places in many countries, published books, directed a documentary, and among many other things even owned and ran a coffee house in Galatasaray. Located in a narrow alley—alluding to his name Ara—the walls of the building he owned and where he lived were middle-gray! True to his photographic roots, he had the walls and the trims painted in shades of gray where much of his fame rested, in B&W photography.
Ara Guler left a big legacy behind and they started a museum dedicated to his work in Istanbul. I am very happy to hear that. His photographs will remind what Istanbul looked like in its heyday to those who remember those days. And, the same photographs may one day make the future generations realize that the character of Istanbul and its allure came not from immense crowds but from its living streets and breathing buildings.
Ara Guler passed away on October 17, 2018. This is a belated farewell to a man I have known very well yet not at all, admired his work without getting a chance to shake his hand, saw only from a distance as he stood at the corner of his coffee house. He was a man of the old Istanbul, the city I miss and remember very fondly; and can still find it in his photographs. I invite you to visit the following sites to start exploring the works of Ara Guler, the Eye of Istanbul!
Ara Guler’s own Web site
Magnum Photos
New York Times
LensCulture
… and many, many more …
Ramazan KAMARI says
Merhaba Cemal hocam,
Onun çalışmaları, zaman mefhumu, değişim ve hayatı anlama konularında bana yol göstermiştir. Verdiği röportajlarda İstanbul’un bu kadar değişeceğini tahmin edemediğini söylemiştir.
Selamlar.
A. Cemal Ekin says
Haklisin Ramazan. Kim tahmin ederdi Istanbul’un bu kadar buyuyecegini? Daha once de yazdim bir yazida, 1960 yllarinda Istanbul’un nufusu 1 milyondu. 2015’de bu oldu 17 milyon. Ayni sure icinde New York nufusu 750 binden 820 bine cikmis. Kentlerin dokusu degisince baska mekanlar oluyor. Ben Istanbul’u da Adana’yi da taniyamiyorum artik. Bu da oldu iste, …
Selamlar,
Cemal
Haluk Atamal says
Indeed a great name passed away. Great for Istanbul and great for photography. Thanks for the article Cemal.
Love and best regards from Amsterdam.
Haluk
A. Cemal Ekin says
It took me a while to get going to write this post, partly the loss of the photographer and partly the loss of the subject made me hesitate. I have one of his photographs of musicians in a tavern. The feeling is 100% Istanbul which I cannot say for most of the photographs of the city today.
Greetings to Amsterdam too,
Cemal
James McArdle says
Thank you for this post. That your own history is intertwined with that of Ara Guler makes your discussion of his work all the more poetic and evocative. So wonderful that photographs, in their abbreviated visual form, can unfold to remind us of times past…as Marcel Proust noted “Pleasure in this respect is like photography. What we take, in the presence of the beloved object, is merely a negative film; we develop it later, when we are at home, and have once again found at our disposal that inner darkroom, the entrance to which is barred to us so long as we are with other people.”
A. Cemal Ekin says
Thank you, James, for your great insight. Indeed, I remember Istanbul of the past with its immense charms that Ara Guler captured in full.
Thank you for stopping by and sharing your thoughts,
Cemal