Executive Curator: Mr. Patrice Vallette Co-Curator: Feu Mr. Ara Güler (b. 1928 - d.2018) Special Advisor: Mrs. Muge Aral Project Coordinators: Constatin Beck, Robin Minas, Camille Caillet Texts: Coskun Aral, Bruno Barbey (b. 1941 - d.2020) Translation: Design: Mr.Arif Hassan The text in divider of the catalog with Orange background Are the Quotes of Ara Güler Extracted from his conversation And interviews. ©️ Reproduction of photo by Ara Güler Authorized by Ara Güler Under license agreement Dated 25.02.2016 with 69 fine art SDN BHD. All rights reserved No part of this publication May be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means. Thanks to Ara Güler for his support On the selection of work (b.1928- d.2019)
This project is in memory of the legendary Turkish-Armenian photographer Ara Güler. (B.1928 - D. 2018) Throughout over 70 years of career as one of Turkey’s most famous photojournalists, Ara Güler had devoted himself to depicting reality through his lens. But his work went even further as he did not stop at the mere act of snapping a picture of cities or people: he added his own touch to the final product, thus creating artworks lled with emotions. From the start of his career in Turkey to his various trips around the world whether in Europe, Africa, America or Asia, every encounter he made was unique, every place he visited was singular, but the pictures he took remain timeless. His approach of the world is universal in the way that his pictures do not age, and re ect a reality, whether from the past century or closer days. This project is set to embark on a two to three years tour reaching out to a varied public of all ages and nationalities, starting from Asia to move on to Europe and America. Through a selection of pictures of the photographer’s personal life, Turkey, personalities and more, the exhibition aims at showing a great collection of Ara Güler’s artworks. Moreover, the exhibition is also set to be not only a visual experience, but a sensoral one allowing the audience to immerse into a part of Ara Güler’s universe through sounds and emotions. Patrice Vallette Curator
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Ara Güler
Ara Güler is a internationally recognized photojournalist who continues to contribute to the promotion and enrichment of Turkey’s cultural standing. Referred to as ‘the Eye of Istanbul’, he identifies himself as a reporter eager to record history and culture through the presence of humans. There are no borders to his mastery. For him photojournalism is the perfect medium to reflect the reality and truth of the world, to capture and immortalize moments of life, memories, sufferings and histories. During the 1970s, Ara Güler became interested in realizing portraits of famous celebrities, artists, and politicians. Names like Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, Alfred Hitchcock, Maria Callas, Indira Gandhi and even Winston Churchill are part of his collection. His photographs are the testimony of the numerous relationships he developed and nurtured through both his personal and professional life. Ara Güler has received many prizes and awards such as Turkey’s Photographer of the Century in 1999, France’s Légion d’Honneur, the Lifetime Achievement Lucie Award in 2009, and more recently the Nuremberg Honorary Award in 2017. Numerous books and articles have also been published on this singular individual that is Ara Güler. His work was commissioned by the Stern, Paris Match, Time and many more. He equally joined Magnum Photos after personally meeting with Marc Riboud and Henri Cartier-Bresson. His photographs are now part of various institutions’ collections around the world. The most impressive aspect of his work relies on the diversity of his subjects. What he describes as an ‘archive’ is actually his accomplished collection of more than 800 000 artworks. 4
PATRICE VALLETTE ` Ara Güler Universal Executive Curator Visioncy Agency Founder and Director
Ara Güler has become a reference in the profession by his amazing work. Prizes and discernments are witnesses to the recognition that the world of photography has given him, and that only few photographers can boast. However, beyond the man, Ara Güler has become a myth, a full-fledged component of a countrys heritage, Turkey, and even, the storyteller of an international cultural narrative. The trips he has made to the United States, France, Kenya, the island of Borneo, Iran and elsewhere as well as artists like Picasso, Dali, Chagall, Aragon, Hitchcock, even Churchill, and many more, resonate in the stories of a man who has always given a lot of importance to meetings describe as professional, but above all human that you will discover today. Discover a series of more than 60 images from Istanbul between 1955 and 1959, the portraits of artists, intellectuals, scientists, politicians ... Sit and listen, Ara is in front of you, listen to one of the music of his childhood that his mother hummed, taste one of his favourite desserts and hear him.
I remember the day we meet at Ara Café on a Thursday afternoon We talked as if we had seen each other the day before. You've always been the kind of person we meet once in a lifetime only. These meetings will forever be in your memory, in your heart. We talked about life, our passions, photography of course and the image we had on our paths. Ara Güler’s life is only the reflection of the way you look at an image, and I had the chance to know his work with an inside look from the character. At the end Ara, your main contribution to the history of photography is perhaps this one, the transmission of a way of looking at life. Since the first days we met, when we talked about your work, I had no choice but to get excited, listening to you, looking at you and talking to you. Telling you about a unique project, which will have the ambition to not only make your work travel, but to take your soul with this jewel. These photographs we have selected them together, and together we have depicted the colours you wanted to give to the moments of your life. Today, we present you an exhibition composed of more than 150 moments of life, photographs, presenting Ara from an early age, around his family who has always supported him. Between Şişli, Ortaköy, Beyoğlu and Turkey, we meet a young man passionate about cinema, who will quickly feed his passion during his military service only to turn to photography. An exhibition that talks about Ara's work, with Ara, for Ara. A glance at humanism and photography through a man who left with his work an indelible mark on the 20th century. A tribute to the photographer who has spent a large part of his career using the Leica 21mm and is and one of the few photographers to receive the Leica award. 5
I want to thank the Moshen gallery for understanding the importance of this project from the moment we presented it and for concentrating its forces to lead us in this beautiful place that is the Nabshi Center. Your partnership has shown that working on producing a cosmopolitan project like Ara Güler Universal is possible and wonderful. Different continents, different cultures, different languages, but the same feeling. Ara would have been so happy to be with us today, to be able to visit the exhibition, to take a look at the book and be present for the premiere of his film. This project is obviously dedicated to you, Ara, and we thank the people who contributed to it: • Coşkun Aral, whose unwavering support has enabled the realization of this exhibition of his friend and mentor, • Müge Aral for his participation and his professionalism, • Lorena for her support, • Camille, Solange, Lucie and Robin from the Visioncy agency. Finally, I would like to share a few words from a very dear friend of Ara Güler who also invited him to contribute to Magnum and who came to visit him on several occasions to eat desserts and talk about photography • Mr Henri Cartier Bresson • "Time runs out and our death alone catches up with it. The photography is a cleaver that in eternity captures the moment that dazzled him. "
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the walls and often, at the adjoining tables, many young students from the nearby, prestigious Galatasaray University are on the lookout for the right moment to come and ask him for an autograph.
BRUNO BARBEY (B.1941 - D. 2020) Photographer and a member of Magnum Photo
In our small brotherhood, Ara is, with his warmth and generosity, the ambassador of Istanbul. In 1958, he was the first Near East correspondent for TIME, he also worked for Paris Match and Der Stern. In 1961, he met Henri-Cartier Bresson and then many of us from Magnum. He even managed to convince a pleasant hotel in the city center to graciously welcome all of his colleagues, this sort of thing was typical of his willingness to offer help to others. During one of my visits to Istanbul, we were both walking around town, and found ourselves by chance in front of the doors of the museum of archaeology, which were unfortunately closed. To the guard posted at the door Ara demanded, with great authority: “Will you immediately open this museum!” His request was immediately executed as if an order!
Homage to Ara Güler given by Magnum’s Bruno Barbey at the 2017 Nuremberg Turkish / German Film Festival.
And in closing, he was also able to capture the spirit of his times, with portrait of famous women and men such as Churchill, Picasso, Langlois, Dali, Nazim Hikmet, Man Ray...”
Cities are made of men and their monuments. Between grandeur and poverty, strength and melancholy, these two entities coexist. Our job is to show how. If we are honest, we are hunters of souls. But hunters of a delicate kind, using a little sorcery. We do not want to capture images for ourselves, but to share with everyone’s eyes, to keep for everyone. I first met Ara Güler Twenty-five years ago, with his wife Summa, in Indonesia for the production of a collective book project for Éditions du Pacifique. Ara not only photographed Turkey in depth, he also traveled the world. Working in China, the Middle East, Kazakhstan, Kenya, India, Iran, New Guinea and Borneo. In addition to official awards and decorations, Ara has long been entitled to an unofficial title: The Eye of Istanbul. Undoubtedly, Ara is the photographer who captured, from the 1950s to today, a part of the soul of this city. As Orhan Pamuk says, it was in Ara’s photographs that Istanbul’s streets, in the 1950s and 1960s, were best captured, documented and preserved. Ara likes to emphasize the documentary and journalistic aspects of his work, incredibly vast and rich, rather than the artistic side of what he calls his “archives”. Whenever I go to Istanbul, I have the pleasure of visiting Ara in his Galatasaray neighborhood. Sometimes I find him at his very own Ara Kafé. All around him are the most beautiful photographs of Istanbul on 7
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NEZIH TAVLAS Photojournalist, Documentary Photographer and writer of the book The Life Story Of Ara Güler
Wherever Ara Güler is on the globe, people are at the core of his photographic scope; some are known by everyone and some are only ordinary people. He reveres and brings the person in the focus to the foreground.He shoots these frames with love and adoration: “Actually nothing is important if love of humans is lost. The most essential thing is love. Everything depends on it. Because everything even photography is for humans. There can never be a person devoid of love and photography devoid of people.” Ara Güler knows everyone he photographs: where they have come from, what they do, their hopes, and concerns, thus magically he knows which position and which pose would reflect them the best. For he believes in photography to be a magic that will encapsulate and transmit a moment of our flowing life to the future times. Ara Güler is one of the, not only Turkey’s but the world’s, best. What puts him in the same league with Alfred Stieglitz, Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Henri Cartier Bresson and Paul Strand like representatives of photographic realism as much as his life-long career, intellectual knowledge and outbursts putting philosophers to shame are his amateur enthusiasm, curiosity, and his boyishness and romanticism that he has been able to maintane. “Me and my Photographs are a bit romantic. I do not take photographs in a normal light. Either at sunrise, or sundown, or early in the morning. Besides I want to explain something in every frame. Every image has to have a message” And of course, Ara Güler’s photographs explain a lot. Each portrait, national and international, bears a potential for pages and pages of comments. Each Ara Güler frame carries the clues of his authorship, wisdom, theatricality. Therefore unexceptionally every image from his lenses tell everyone that “This is an Ara Güler photograph” The sensitivity reflected in his images, the flawless compositions and the splendid esthetics are his real signature. Despite all this romanticism, Ara Güler never departs from realism for he sees himself as a photojournalist, a man chronicling history by his camera. Ara Güler believes photojournalism, that he has exercised all his life, to be not just covering events but to convey to the future generations the life, art, customs and traditions of the times and what people do, their sorrows and joys. Hence, looking at Ara Güler’s photographs one sees the history of Turkey, of İstanbul, of the people of Turkey. 10
HOSSEIN FARMANI Founder and President of Lucie award in NY
I have always been deeply impressed by Ara's iconic, nostalgic, dreamy and melacholic black and white photograph of Istanbul. I first met Ara through the recommendation of Marc Ribound. "Hossein", said to me, "do you know Ara Güler?" I proudly replied, "I know his famous Salvador Dali Photograph." "You should see his Istanbul Photographs." Marc said "I think he should receive a Lucie Award." Truthfully, I was embrrased to not know more about Ara's work at the time, but the more I learned, the more I realized that I was getting to know a true Master. Marc was right this man and his work truly deserved to be honored at the Lucie Awards. So, a month later I arrivedin his studio in Istanbul to speak with him about the Lucie Lifetime Achievement Award that he would be receiving. "I stil have a lifetime mire of photography in me." said Ara, to which I replied, "In that case, Ara Jan, we'll call this is your Midlife Achievement Award". He was only 76 then, still full of energy and a great sense of humor. Ara captured some of the most poignant and nostalg image of Istanbul ever seen, and he also portrayed some of the world's most famous figures and life in far away, exotic place. Ara had traveled to China, The Middle East, India, Borneo and many other countries around the world, but whener i met him, he would say reminisce about his time in Iran. "Did I tell you I photographed Iran?" he would say almsot every time we met, and he confided that his visit to Iran were some of the best time of his life. the highlight of my own visit to Istanbul for many years were the visit to Ara's Studio, and Having "Çay" at Ara's Kafe, where we talked for hour about everything from photography to politics, religion and art. His generous warm soul, but all subject of interest in his surrounding made Ara one of the icons of photography, and one of my own personal heroes. Ara lived in post-card perfect, lovely part of istabul. The picturesque Galatasaray neighborhood was like a living photography. On every
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corner a photograph was waiting to be taken, and Ara did just that for over 7 decades. To date no one has captured the soul of this city like Ara. Ara's early cinema studies under Muhsin Ertuǧrul, the legendary Turkish actor and director, were a big contributing factor to developing his eye for capturing the most dramatic photographs. Every one of his pictures tells a story. He was a silent witness to life around him. A hunter of souls, he would sometimes sit and wait for hours for the scene to capture him and only then he would press the shutter. Ara photographed life itself. Ara was a kind, empathetic soul who was well known and loved in his community, and yet he had a strong character and was at times very assertive. On our walks along his Istiklal Avenue, he would sometimes scold a passer-by for littering and ask them to pick up their trash. Then a shopkeeper would shout, "The sheriff is in town. We love you Ara!" He was affectionately known as the unofficial Mayor of Istanbul. Inspired by French photographers Robert Doisneau and Henri CartierBresson who captured the streets of Paris, Ara's great passion was his city. His work preserved facets of Istanbul that have now become irrevocably lost, from an old cemetery with children playing amid the graves to old ladies praying at the Old Mosque in Edirne before the vast "Allah" calligraphy in Arabic letters. His photos were destined to endure because of the things they immortalized. His photo of three old men chatting on short chairs on the wall of an old coffee shop has become one of the emblems of the nostalgia for the old Istanbul, and his photograph of a boy with bread and milk is sometimes defined as the photography of happiness. Though an Orthodox Christian himself, Ara's work is one of the best documentations of the Islamic architecture of Turkey, not showing the grand mosques simply as picturesque buildings but as monuments amidst ordinary life and people, as they are. Güler once defined a photojournalist as someone who carries the mirror of his own period to the next generations. He said, "Photojournalists and photographers are always confused. We are not photographers, but photojournalists. We record our period and leave it to the next generation. This is not 'being a photographer' but 'being a photojournalist." Ara Gülermade it his mission to document the most important events of his era for future generations. Ara, like Cartier-Bresson, was a visual historian who dedicated his life to photography. His passion and commitment were boundless and has inspired his peers and younger generations of photographers alike. When Time-Life, an American publication, opened a branch in Turkey in 1958 and hired Ara as their initial correspondent, it became a golden canvas for Ara to show his work to a wide audience, the prestige of the magazine opening many doors for this young photojournalist. His theatrically trained eye for drama made poetry in every picture and captured the public's imagination and emotions through the stories of life and happiness, as well as suffering and despair, which his photographs told so eloquently. Photographers like Ara understood their role and responsibilities as photojournalists, and their duty as non-partisan witnesses to history. They understood that the job of the photojournalist was to tell the untold true stories, to shine an unfiltered light on world events. They traveled the world to give a voice to the unheard and their photographs created awareness of the struggle of 12
the weak and isolated. They took their audience to the far reaches of the world through their images, opening doors of understanding and breaking down walls of prejudice and ignorance. Through the eyes of iconic masters of the craft like Ara, photography has become the far-reaching form of communication that it is today. Sadly in recent years the role of the media in disseminating the news is being questioned by many who doubt the trustworthiness of images in covering major events. With the development of digital technology and the ease with which images can be manipulated and 're-touched', photojournalism as a profession has found itself under intense critical scrutiny, stories and images held under a microscope of suspicion and judgment. Unfortunately, photojournalism for some has become a tool to propagate certain personal opinions or views. This, however, was not Ara. He held strong views and opinions on many matters, but when it came to his photography, his images were simply a pure representation of life as it was presented to him. He captured the truth as his lens revealed it. In his last interview in the British Journal of Photography Ara said, "For the content, you have to have a soul, a spirit. Not only an eye for detail, but you have to be cultured. You have to know the world and everything in it. You have to understand what you see. You can't watch Natalia Medvedeva play tennis and think it's a dance. Most importantly, you have to feel it." And feel it he did! His love of life caused him to embrace the world around him as few others, and he was gifted with 90 wonderful years. "People call me an Istanbul photographer but I am a citizen of the world. I am a world photographer," Ara once said. This was proven by the great respect and admiration his work earned him in all corners of the world. He had an exhibition in 1972 at the Paris National Library; he was invited to the United States in 1975 and after taking photographs of many famous Americans, his "Creative Americans" exhibition traveled to various cities around the world. Also in 1975, his love of cinema was reborn and he shot a documentary movie about the dismantling of the Yavuz battleship titled "Kahramanin Sonu" ("The End of the Legend") in true storyteller fashion. But in spite of his many achievements and accolades, he remained downto-earth and modest about his work. He has 58 books of published photos, but when asked if he had selected a museum for his archive, dark room and cameras to be displayed, he humbly replied: "I don't want a museum for people to visit. I just show my archive to my friends and journalists during interviews. I don't need to be known." I have been fortunate to meet many icons of photography in my time at the Lucie Awards, and Ara, a recipient of France's Legion d'honneur and named one of the seven best photographers in the world, was one of the most unforgettable. He dedicated his life to capturing and documenting what he loved. His passion for life and the integrity he maintained in his craft inspires us all and will continue to inspire for generations to come. As a true icon and master he is greatly admired, and as a wonderful human being he is deeply missed, but his legacy and his spirit will live for eternity. 13
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photos that I took during the incidents were published in many magazines around the world. It was then Ara who called me to celebrate when he saw my photos published in the same magazine he’d been working, Life. So, this was it. I’ve become his student, his friend till the time he died.
Coskun Aral A Master & A Mentor For Me ‘At the age of 62, when I think about the memories of my early-childhood in Siirt , I realize that they’re mostly about poverty. My parents wanted me to survive after they’ve lost two children born before me, so I was sent to live at my aunt’s home in Istanbul, with a day-long train trip from Siirt. My childhood story a long but not a bright one of course. What many can confirm is that the traumas in one’s childhood defines his/her life. Some could get over it, some not, some choose not to. Born in the southeastern corner of Turkey, it was not an easy task to blend in the classroom in Istanbul even with blonde hair and blue eyes. Contrary to those who aren’t evaluated by their roots, as a southeasterner my birth place has always been an issue. In some cases even your birth place can create prejudices, your name, your look, your dialect etc. As this was the case for me, I’ve learnt at a very early age the fact that prevails all over the world that your character counts the most even you’re judged otherwise. Human tribe has always favoured the one who belonged and mostly disregarded the rest. As long as humans tend to act in this way, concurrently being the outcast and the bigot, peace can’t be achieved. Grasping this fact, I have peace in my inner world and so was our world with Ara.
The same year I was born in Siirt, Ara was shooting photos there. He gave me a photo of a boy with a donkey saying that if he visited Siirt later, that boy could have been me. Ara has always been thinking and living beyond the box. We often shared stories about our families. As a young photojournalist, I was so lucky to have him beside me, not only as a master but as a mentor too. When I was complaining about my family stuff, he’d explained his own. His father’s been an orphan in a boarding school in Istanbul, his mom was a grandchild of a 45 year-old wealthy Ottoman family. Two people united with their own baggage and his father never thought of vengeance of the past. He’d always told me not to blame anyone for anything. “You should love people. They’ll eventually get their reward if they’re stupid or ignorant.” Complaning, wining, judging were all useless actions for him, they truly are. From his perspective every tragedy had the potential to bear something good. Our duty was to make people remember so that tragedies won’t occur, that’s why our job was so important. Wise words for a younster like me at the time but true. I can still hear how he sounded telling me all these. Ara and I have a huge collection of memories of the people we met and loved; the places we’ve been, the moments we shared, happiness, bitterness, uncertainty... Every kind of feeling for every step of the way. I now rewind those memories and watch them in my head with a smiling face. I look at his glowing eyes, he’s saying “Son, let’s go to Emirgan to eat white pudding.” He forgets to pay the bills and his wife Suna bans him to go to Sultanahmet for eating white beans so we just have tea instead in his office. He looks at my photographs, some he likes, some he doesn’t, always straightforward. May the light you’ve caught in your photographs will always be with you my Master Ara.’
On the far southeast corner of Turkey, I’ve met Ara when I was literally a kid with his interviews in Life magazine. At the time we didn’t have any windows opening to the outer world and Ara’s interviews took me to the places I’ve never been, even imagined. Who could’ve known other than me that I’d follow his footsteps ? I came to Istanbul in my teens and started working and studying. It was an unimaginable dream for me to meet with him and that dream came true in 1975 I was on a trolley bus in Galatasaray, Istanbul and Ara got on the same trolley bus with a charming manner saying the conductor as such: “I’m the photojournalist Ara Guler.” showing his press card at the same time which is considered as a ticket. I moved to reach him but when I got close, I was too excited to speak. So, he’d just stepped out and I was disappointed. Two years later, our paths crossed again. He was working in Anka Agency going to assignments for them and I just went there to work on weekends in order to increase my chance to meet him again. There he was. One day, he arrived at the agency and I was the one who helped him. I only spoke a few words but it was better than nothing. Our proper meeting would be after 1977. May 1st 1977 is referred to as ‘Bloddy May 1st’ in Turkey, the day more than 40 people were killed and many were injured, starting with a gunshot among the crowd, following by a stampede and the intervention of the security forces. This horrible day, also my birthday turned out to be a turning point of my career. The
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Ara Güler and Coşkun Aral in ferry boat between the European and Asian side • Istanbul • 1974 •
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1950 -1960
• Working in the turkish news paper “Yeni Istanbul “ and the newspaper “Hürriyet” fey years later as a photo reporter after having started studies of cinema and attend drama course held by Muhsin Ertugrul, the founder of modern Turkish theater. • Traveling on assigment to such countries as Iran, Khazakhstan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Kenya, New Guinea, Borneo, as well as all parts of Turkey. • Being invited by American TimeLife magazine after opening a branch in Turkey as the first correspondent for the Near East. • Working for Paris Match and Der Stern.
1960 -1970
1970 -1990
• His photos were used in books by notable authors as a means of illustration and were shown at different exhibitions around the world
• Publishing
• Being recruited by Henri CartierBresson and Marc Riboud for the Magnum Photos Agency
• Meeting and taking portrait photos of the most well know faces of the 20th century: Winston Churchill, Sofia Loren, Indira Gandhi, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Willy Brandt, Alfred Hitchcock, Marc Chagall,.
• Being selected as “one of the world’s top seven photographers” by the British-based Photography Annual Anthology •Becoming the only Turkish member of the American Society for Media Photographers • Being hired as the
by Hayat magazine chief photographer
• Receiving the Master of Leica title and Being awarded by Leica, a consecration for a professional photographer • Becoming of English Observer for
correspondent newspaper, The the Near-East
• His works were exhibited in “10 Masters of Color Photography” at the New York Museum of Modern Art • His photos on art and art history are used in Time-Life, Horizon and Newsweek publications • Traveling to South-East Asia for the purpose of collecting photographic material for International magazines as The Times
• Directing The End
his
photography
the of the
album
documentary, Hero (1975)
• Being awarded First Prize in Photojournalism by the Turkish Association of Journalists
19902018
• Receiving the Photographer of the Year Award from iFSAK (Istanbul Amateur Photography and Cinema Club). • Named of the
"Photographer Century", Turkey
• Awarded the Legion d'Honneur medal and title of Officier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government in the Palais de France, Istanbul • Awarded from the Grand Prize of Culture and Arts of the Republic of Turkey • Awarded the Lucie Lifetime Achievement,
Award for New York
• Receiving Honorary
Nuremberg Award.
the
• Opening of The Ara Giller Museum in Istanbul on the photographer's 90th birthday
page 1 - 42
ara Güler, family & friends
page 43 - 80
the eye of istanbul
page 81 - 122
ara Güler & the celebrity
page 123 - 138
the muslimin
page 139 - 154
the awards
page 155 - 166
the object
ara Güler, family & friends
Ara Güler as a child and his nanny Agavni • Beyoğlu, İstanbul, Turkey • 1929 •
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Ara Guler age of six • Beyoğlu, Istanbul, Turkey • 1932
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Ara Güler in a toy car bought by his father • Beyoğlu, İstanbul, Turkey • 1932
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Ara Guler, first year of primary school Mihitaryan Manastir • Mektebi, Istanbul • Turkey Family
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Ara Güler on 4th floor, Şafak Apartment Block, • Şehit Muhtar Street ,Istanbul •
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Young Ara Guler in a Cowboy pose •
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Ara and Dacat Güler posing in front of the Sebinkarahisar fortress • Sebinkarahisar fortress, • Turkey • 1973
Verjin and Dacat Güler, Ara Güler’s parents, on their wedding • Istanbul, Turkey •1925
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Ara Güler and his niece Mayda Uncuyan posing with a 35 mm Ernemann Kino movie projector in the summer house in Suadiye • Istanbul
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Ara Güler on the left, his niece Sona on the right, and Ara Güler’s father, Dacat Güler • 1937
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the surveillance aircraft used for photograph the trace of noah ark • Mount Ararat • 1960
On another day in the Air Force; F100 craft •
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Ara Güler and Suna Güler • Istanbul • 1993 •
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Ara Güler, Lieutenant Star, Commander of 5th division, Military Services • 1953 •
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Ara Güler used a 4x5inch Speed Graphic camera and ampule flashes in his first years as a photojournalist •
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While visiting Mount Ararat for investigation • 1960
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Aerial studies, Mount Ararat and Mount Tunduruk Aerial studies • Mount Ararat and Mount Tun duruk • 1960
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Ara Güler And friends • 1976 •
Ara Güler at the famous Cavendish square • London • 1976 •
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Ara Güler preparing to photograph starlet • St. Manganit Island at Cannes • 1958 •
A souvenir photo taken while going to the pier from the square on the island, • Büyükada, Turkey •
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I do not take photograph for people to look and impressed. I photograph what i see. some see and some don't.
Ara Güler and İlhan Selçuk the editorial writer for the newspaper Cumhuriyet bathing in the sea • zmit
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While eating at the renowned Lipp restaurant located on the St. Germain Bd. • Paris, France,
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On the Island of Borneo, Ara Güler with his wife Suna Güler going through rivers on a canoe, Borneo Island • 1990
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Pablo Picasso and Ara Guler, Notre Dame de Vie, Cannes, • Paris, France • 1971 •
Ara Guler and Salvador Dali, Meurice Hotel • Paris, France • 1971 •
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Ara Güler and Alfred Hitchcock in his office at Universal studio • Los Angeles, USA • 1974 •
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Ara Güler and the Magnum photojournalist Ernst Haas , Istanbul, Turkey
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Ara Güler and Coşkun Aral in ferry boat between the European and Asian side • Istanbul • 1974 •
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Ara Güler and Henri Cartier Bresson on the Bosphorus • Istanbul, Turkey •
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Ara Guler and Magnum’s Editor in Chief James A. Fox editing the featured color archives of ‘Anatolian Civilizations’ • Istanbul, Turkey • JUN 1983 • Ara Güler and the Magnum photojournalist Ernst Haas • Istanbul, Turkey •
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The Times picture Editor Norman Hall and Ara Güler • London, England •
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Ara Güler and Orhan Pamuk, in his office • Istanbul, Turkey • 1997 •
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Ara Güler and Marc Riboud • Istanbul • Turkey
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Ara Güler working with a Leitz Focomat II C Color Enlarger which will become the most widely used device in the 50’s, Beyoğlu • Istanbul, Turkey • 1953 •
Ara Güler trying 16 mm player •
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Ara Güler set up his own dark room on the top floor of his father’s pharmacy. His first enlarger was a small, with a Federal brand magnifying, Beyoğlu • Istanbul • Turkey • 41
Ara Güler with a Paillard Bolex camera • 1975 •
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Ara Güler with Leica cameras around his neck • 1955 • 43
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Ara Güler at TRT Studio Istanbul • 1992 •
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Merci A Tol • 2016 •
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the eye of istanbul
"If i take a photo of a shepheard. i should sit with him eat together, stay in the night tent. I gotta get to know him. Only after that, i can take the picture."
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Bosphorus passenger boat is leaving the European •
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Eminönü, boatmen wait for passengers to cross the Golden Horn towards Galata • Istanbul, Turkey • 1956 •
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Fishermen returning to port in Kumkapı • Istanbul, Turkey • 1950 •
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Salacak landing-stage and Istanbul silhouette, Üsküdar • Istanbul, Turkey, 1968 •
55
On the Golden Horn • Istanbul, Turkey • 1959 •
56
Suleymaniye Mosque. Halic, the Golden Horn • Istanbul, Turkey • 1962 •
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Barges and birds in the Golden Horn • Istanbul, Turkey • 1955 •
Nets spread out to dry at Kumkapi • Istanbul, Turkey • 1958 • 59
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A view of the Golden Horn with the Suleymaniye Mosque built during the Ottoman Empire • Istanbul, Turkey • 1956 •
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People are saying their goodbyes at the Galata dock • Karaköy, Istanbul, Turkey • 1955 •
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Karaköy • Istanbul, Turkey •1959 •
A view of the Golden Horn with the Suleymaniye Mosque built during the Ottoman Empire • Istanbul, Turkey • 1956 •
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‘ Salep’ seller in early morning light on the old Galata Bridge • Istanbul, Turkey • 1957•
Eminönü, traffic on the old Galata Bridge • Istanbul, Turkey • 1956 •
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Right: Nightfall in the district of Zeyrek • Istanbul, Turkey •1960 •
Beyoğlu • Istanbul, Turkey • 1965 •
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Mahmutpasa, Istanbul • Turkey 1965 •
Trams meeting at a corner in Galatasaray • Istanbul, Turkey • 1960 •
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Istiklal Street, Beyoğlu • İstanbul , Turkey • 1965 •
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"I believe that photography is a form of magic, by which moment of experience is seized for the transmission to the future generation." Ara Güler
73
A poet smoking in Kaplumbaga street • Istanbul, Turkey • 1965 •
Storks and pigeons having a fight in the courtyard of the Eyupsultan Mosque • Istanbul, Turkey • 1964 •
75
A little boy among the tombstones at Vefa • Istanbul, Turkey •1962 •
76
Gun and Bread • Kaleiçi, Ankara, Turkey • 1970 • 77
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Children playing at Tophane • Istanbul, Turkey • 1986 •
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Boys are playing marbles near the Fethiye Mosque Fatih • Istanbul, Turkey • 1968 •
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A little girl is playing in the cemetery of Zeyrek with Ottoman tombstones • Istanbul, Turkey • 1957 •
82
Village children in the Uludag mountain region near Bursa • Turkey • 1957
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Village children in the Uludag mountain region near Bursa • Turkey • 1957 •
84
On Galata Bridge • Istanbul, Turkey • 1956 •
Porters at the Beyoğlu market • Istanbul, Turkey • 1954 •
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People sitting and talking eside a corner coffeehouse in Hazzopulo passage • Beyoğlu, İstanbul , Turkey • 1958 •
Boatmen in the Golden Horn, Old Galata Bridge and the New Mosque • Istanbul, Turkey • 1956 • 87
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Porters waiting to unload ships along the Golden Horn • Istanbul, Turkey • 1954 •
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Iron workers wait in a tea house for their shift to start • Drivrigi, Sivas • 1970 •
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Drunk man in a bar at Tophane • Istanbul, Turkey • 1959 •
92
ara guler & the celebrity
"Our world has been created by the Artist. I sought them everywhere and photograph them."
Ara Güler taking a self-portrait in a mirror while visiting photographer Kemal Tahir, • Kadikoy, Turkey • 1954 •
96
Maria Callas • 1977 •
97
sophia loren • Cannes • 1966 •
98
Alexander Calder • Sache, Indre-et-Loire, France • 1975 •
99
Marc Chagall on the grand staircase of his home • Quai d’Anjou, Ile Saint Louis, Paris, • 1971 •
100
Salvador Dali in the Meurice Hotel / Paris, France, 1971
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Pablo Picasso / Notre Dame de Vie, Cannes, France, 1971
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Abidin Dino • Paris, France • Pablo Picasso, Notre Dame de Vie • Cannes, France • 1971 •
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Imogen Cunningham • San Francisco, USA • 1974 •
105
Ansel Adams • San Francisco, USA • 1974 •
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Louis Aragon • Paris, France • 1981 •
107
William Saroyan • Paris, France • 1973 •
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Orhan Kemal • Istanbul, Turkey • 1970 •
109
Orhan Pamuk • Istanbul, Turkey • 1997•
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Jacques Prévert • Pigalle • France
111
Arthur Miller • Connectictut, USA • 1974 •
112
Can Yucel •
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Nazim Hikmet • Paris, France • 1961 •
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James Baldwin, the Relais • Bisson, Paris •
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Aziz Nesin • Kadrajindan
116
Elia Kazan • NYC, USA •
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Orson Welles • Cannes, France • 1970 •
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Elia Kazan • NYC, USA •
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Sydney Lumet • NYC, USA • 1974 •
120
Vincent Minelli • California, USA • 1974 •
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Alfred Hichcock, Universal Studio • Los Angeles, USA, 1974
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Federico Fillini • Cannes • 1957 •
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Tennessee Williams • Istanbul, Turkey • 1955 •
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Edward Durell Stone, in his office • Rockkefellar Center • NYC, USA •
Wernher Von Braun, Germantown • Maryland USA •1977
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Paul Samuelson, Nobel Prize for Economics 1971, Massachusetts Institute of Technology • Boston, USA • 1976 •
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Minoru Yamasaki • Detroit, USA • 1974 •
128
Richard Rodgers • NYC, USA • 1974 •
129
Aaron Copland • Boston, USA • 1974 •
130
Aram Khachaturiam, Musician City • Gorki Street, Moscow • Dave Brubeck in his recording studio at Atlantic Records • NYC, USA • 1970A •
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Indra Ghandi,in her private house • New-Delhi, India •1977 •
133
Pope Paul iv • Santa Sophia / Hagia Sophia, Turkey •
134
Ara Güler and İsmet Pasha İnönü, Sohtorik's Summer house • Maltepe, Istanbul • 1969 • 135
136
the muslimin
Shadirvan in the court of Sokullu Mosque, Eminönü • Istanbul, Turkey • 1988 • 140
Zeyrek, Fatih • Istanbul, Turkey • 1980 • 142
Tophane • Istanbul, Turkey • 1999 • 144
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Prayer in a mosque • Istanbul, Turkey • 1981 •
Edirne old mosque • Istanbul, Turkey • 1954 •
Islamic monastery in a tunnel at Galata • Istanbul, Turkey • 1958 • Shadirvan in the court of Sokullu Mosque, Eminönü • Istanbul, Turkey • 1975 • 149
150
"We are the eyes of the world. we see on the behalf of other people we collect the 'Visual History' of today's Earth."
A religious inscription to ‘Allah’ outside Edirne old mosque / Istanbul, Turkey, 1956
152
the award
Ara Güler receiving the French Government’s Medal of Honor ‘Legion d’Honneur, Officier des Arts et des Lettres’ at the French Palace in Istanbul from the French Ambassador Bernard Garcia • Istanbul, Turkey • 2002 • 155
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Ara Güler being awarded Honorary Doctorate from the Mimar Sinan University by Prof. Yalcun Karayaguz • Istanbul, Turkey • 2013 •
157
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Ara Güler receiving a price from former President of Turkish Republic Turgut Özal for his contribution to Turkey’s promotion • Istanbul, Turkey •
159
Ara Güler receiving the Grand Award for Culture and Arts from the hands of the former President of Turkish Republic Ahmet Necdet Sezer • Istanbul, Turkey • 2005 •
160
Ara Güler receiving the Medal of the City of Paris at the Echelon Vermell Ceremony • Paris, France • 2009 •
161
Erdogan the President fo Turkey took a Picture of Ara Guler, the Culture and Arts grand Award • Istanbul • 2012 •
162
Ara Güler Explaining his photograph to the Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, • Yerevan, Armenia • 2013 • 164
Ara Güler and Rauf Denktas, First President of Northern Cyprus • Nicosia, Cyprus • 1996 •
166
Mahathir Mohamad with his wife Siti Hasmah and his daugther Marina Mahathir, in his office • Malaysia • 1989
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the object
A drawing by Picasso which Ara Guler hung in his house • 1971 •
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Marc Chagall’s special dedication to Ara Güler • Paris • France • 173
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Marc Chagall’s special dedication to Ara Güler • Paris, France •
175
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Declaration signed by the Pictures Editor Norman Hall of the Times to officialise Ara Güler and his visit to South-East Asia • London, England • January 24th 1968•
177
Letter intended for Ara Güler from the former Turkish Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit, Place • 1972 •
178
Official paper signed by the Art Editor Dennis W. Hackett to officialize Ara Güler as a member of the londonian newspaper The Observer • London, England • January 11th 1962 •
179
Letter intended for Ara Güler from the Turkish writer Cevat Şakir •
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REST IN PEACE
"Time has changed, life has changed..... these photographs are impression left on me, of a world, lost or gone, in which I lived" "Ara Güler"
Ara Güler, A Visual Historian. (B.1928 - D. 2018)
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Acknowledgement Executive Curator: Mr. Patrice Vallette Co-Curator: Feu Mr. Ara Güler (b. 1928 - d.2018) Special Advisor: Mrs. Muge Aral Project Coordinators: Constatin Beck, Robin Minas, Camille Caillet Texts: Coskun Aral, Bruno Barbey (b. 1941 - d.2020) Translation:
Design: Mr.Arif Hassan The text in divider of the catalog with Orange background Are the Quotes of Ara Güler Extracted from his conversation And interviews. ©️ Reproduction of photo by Ara Güler Authorized by Ara Güler Under license agreement Dated 25.02.2016 with 69 fine art SDN BHD. All rights reserved No part of this publication May be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means. Thanks to Ara Güler for his support On the selection of work (b.1928- d.2019)