Sometimes I find him at his very own Ara Kafé. Whenever I go to Istanbul, I have the pleasure of visiting Ara in his Galatasaray neighborhood. 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”.

Undoubtedly, Ara is the photographer who captured, from the 1950s to today, a part of the soul of this city.Īs Orhan Pamuk says, it was in Ara’s photographs that Istanbul’s streets, in the 1950s and 1960s, were best captured, documented and preserved. In addition to official awards and decorations, Ara has long been entitled to an unofficial title: The Eye of Istanbul. Working in China, the Middle East, Kazakhstan, Kenya, India, Iran, New Guinea and Borneo. Ara not only photographed Turkey in depth, he also traveled the world. 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. We do not want to capture images for ourselves, but to share with everyone’s eyes, to keep for everyone. But hunters of a delicate kind, using a little sorcery. If we are honest, we are hunters of souls. Between grandeur and poverty, strength and melancholy, these two entities coexist. © Ara Güler | Magnum PhotosĬities are made of men and their monuments. © Ara Güler | Magnum Photos Ara Güler The man painting the anchor of a boat, Karaköy. Here, to mark Güler’s death, we reproduce – in translation – an homage to Güler given by Magnum’s Bruno Barbey at the 2017 Nuremberg Turkish/German Film Festival, followed by the thoughts of Turkish Magnum photographer Emin Özmen. Yet for many, it is his iconic, and at times melancholic black and white photographs of his hometown, it’s inhabitants, streets and it’s docks, which are his greatest work. Over his career Güler photographed a host of famous artists and political figures. On meeting Henri Cartier-Bresson in the early 60s Güler joined Magnum Photos, and remained close to many at the agency until his death, aged 90, on Wednesday 17 October. He went on to work for the Turkish daily, Hürriyet, and from there toward work for international titles and worldwide acclaim. The award was presented to him personally the following year.Reflecting on the life and work of Ara Güler, the most influential Turkish photographer of a generationĪra Güler, a native of Istanbul, began his photographic career at the city’s Yeni Istanbulnewspaper in 1950. In the process, Güler also became the chronicler of the rapid, not always people-friendly changes in his home city.Īra Güler was inducted into the Leica Hall of Fame in 2015. Using his Leica, he composed and turned the scenes into atmospherically dense photographs. Since the 1950s, Güler documented the vibrant street life, the hustle and bustle of the big city, but also the hidden everyday life of the inhabitants of this metropolis on the Bosporus, like no other. This is where he was born and where he lived and worked for most of his life.

To this day, he is considered the “eye of Istanbul.” In the course of half a century, the photographer (1928–2018) travelled all over the world, but Istanbul was his true major photographic passion. Its purpose is to convey a story, and to enable the viewer to draw a conclusion. Photography is a means to create a record. “A good photographer must have a love for people.

The eyes of ara photographs