Ara Güler, by Dr Süleyman GündüzMavi Boncuk | SOURCE
Born August 16, 1928 in Beyoğlu, Istanbul, Turkey, Ara Güler is a Turkish photojournalist, also known as Istanbul's Eye. He studied at Getronagan Armenian High School. His father owned a pharmacy, but had many friends that belonged to the world of art. Ara came into contact with these people and they inspired him to opt for a career in films/cinema. He worked in film studios and joined courses of drama under Muhsin Ertuğrul. However, his thirst for journalism urged him to abandon cinema and theatre. Later, he leaned towards journalism and abandoned cinema. In 1950 he joined Yeni Istanbul, a Turkish newspaper, as a photojournalist. During the same time, he studied economics from University of Istanbul. Then he started working for Hürriyet.
In 1958 when Time-Life, an American publication opened its Turkey branch, Ara Güler became its initial correspondent. Soon enough he started to get commissioned by other international magazines, such as Stern, Paris Match, and Sunday Times, London. In 1961, he was hired by Hayat magazine as the chief photographer.
Soon, he met Master Henri-Cartier-Bresson who later invited him to join Magnum Photos. During this time, he met Marc Riboud and Henri Cartier-Bresson, at Magnum Photos. Ara was presented in 1961 British Photography Yearbook. In the same year, the American Society of Magazine Photographers made him the first Turkish photographer to become the member of this organization.
In 1960s, Ara's work was used in books by notable authors as a means of illustration and were shown at different exhibitions around the world. In 1968, his work was displayed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in a show called, Ten Masters of Color Photography. Moreover, his photographs were also shown in Cologne's fair, Photokina in Germany. Two years later,Türkei, his photography album was published. His images related to art and its history were featured in magazines, like Horizon, Life, Time, and Newsweek.
Ara traveled for photography assignments to countries, such as Kenya, Borneo, New Guinea, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Iran and other cities of Turkey. In 1970s, he also took photography interviews with noteworthy artists and politicians, like Salvador Dalí, Marc Chagall, Ansel Adams, Alfred Hitchcock, Imogen Cunningham, Willy Brandt,John Berger,Maria Callas, Bertrand Russell, Pablo Picasso, Indira Gandhi, and Winston Churchill.
In addition, Ara also directed The End of the Hero, a 1975 documentary based on fiction on a World War I battle cruiser.
Ara's work is included in the collections of institutions worldwide, such as Paris's National Library of France; New York's George Eastman Museum; Das imaginäre Photo-Museum; Museum Ludwig Köln; and Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery.
Ara's philosophy on photography is that he attaches great importance to the presence of humans in photography and considers himself as a visual historian. According to him, photography should provide people with memory of their suffering and their life. He feels that art can lie but photography only reflects the reality. He does not value art in photography so he prefers photojournalism.
He has won several awards for his work, including Turkey's Photographer of the Century, 1999; Master of Leica, 1962; France's Légion d'honneur; Lifetime Achievement Lucie Award, 2009; and Turkey's Grand Prize of Culture and Arts, 2005. In 2004, he was give honorary fellowship by Istanbul's Yıldız Technical University.
Ara also published his photographic books, such as Living in Turkey; Sinan: Architect of Süleyman the Magnificent; Ara Güler's Creative Americans; Ara Güler's Movie Directors; and Ara Güler: Photographs.
Not only Istanbul, but also some of the most important landmarks of Turkey have been brought to the world’s attention through Ara Guler’s photographs, including the ancient city of Aphrodisias, legend of Noah’s Ark on Mount Ararat and others. Until 1962, nobody knew that the city of Aphrodisias existed until Ara Guler discovered it.”
Reportedly, when Guler accidentally found himself there, villagers were sitting not on normal chairs but some ancient columns turned upside down. When the photographer asked them where they had taken them from, they took him to the place – an ancient city beneath the ground, which soon, through his photos, became an attractive destination for archeologists.
Ara Guler, the most important living representative of creative photography in Turkey today, has a well-established international reputation. He became a photo-journalist for Paris Match and Stern in 1958. In the British Journal of Photography Year Book published in the UK in 1961, Guler was named one of the seven best photographers of the world. In the same year, he was accepted as a member of ASMP (American Society of Media Photographers) and was its only Turkish member. In 1962, he received the Master of Leica award in Germany. In 1974, he was invited to the US where he photographed a number of famous Americans, photos that were later exhibited under the title “Creative Americans” in many cities around the world.
Ara Guler, an Armenian-Turkish photo journalist from Istanbul, was born in August 16, 1928. He started his career as a photo journalist and worked in several leading newspapers in Turkey. Although he always presented himself as a photo journalist or even a “visual historian”, capturing historical events with his camera, his photographs are among the best artistic images of Istanbul and Turkey. What’s more, his portrait photographs of some of the most famous personalities of the 20th century with whom he made interviews are also among the best examples of the combination of photography and journalism. He was awarded by various countries for his lifetime achievements and outstanding services in the field of photography including Legion d’Honneur Officier des Arts et des Lettres.
When Orhan Pamuk, Nobel Prize laureate and best-selling Turkish writer, was working on his book “Istanbul: Memories and the City’” he did it in the archives of Ara Guler. Pamuk himself confessed that he always perceived the Istanbul of his childhood as a black-and-white photograph. “In Ara Guler’s photographs Istanbul appears like a melancholic city, reflected also on its dwellers’ faces, in an environment where poverty and modesty merge, under the aging sounds of the old and new,” said Pamuk in one of his interviews.
[1] Foto Muhabiri Ara Güler's Biography | Published 2009 by Fotografevi in Istanbul . Written in Turkish. Paperback | 343 pages ISBN 9789944720144
Nezih Tavlaş has written a 343-paged chronologic narration about incidents Ara Güler witnessed throughout his decades-spanning life and career. With his characteristically sympathetic, somewhat cranky manner, he always remarks “I’m a photojournalist, not a photographer; I’m not definitely an artist. I shoot what I see. I don’t do arts. I deliver the things that I see to other people. This is what we call photojournalism.” Despite the years that have passed by, he is always productive. His latest book ‘Photo Journalist’ was published on 15 August on his 81st birthday.
