The first stand of 2022, “Miscellaneous Istanbul”, met with art lovers at the Orta Güler Museum, which was brought to life in collaboration with Doğuş Cluster, based on the archive of Orta Güler, one of the masters of the art of photography. The concept and design of Orta Güler Archive and Research Center is related to the “Miscellaneous Istanbul” booth, 58 different black and white photos of Istanbul by the veteran photographer Güler, Istanbul slide boxes, archive boxes from Güler Apartment, Leica camera in the 1950s and 1960s. There are contact print examples from the early years. In addition, the typewriter Güler wrote his stories, his notebook consisting of stories he wrote during his high school years, and one of these stories, “Sabah in Istanbul”, are also exhibited at the stand.
“If you search for Istanbul’s photographer, I think there is only one person in the world who fits this description: Orta Güler”
Samih Rifat’s ” Orta Güler” in 1994 at the stand The foreword he wrote for the catalog of the stand titled “The Endless Interview: Istanbul”; This stand also includes the catalog, catalog model and brochure. In his epilogue, Samih Rifat describes Orta Güler’s value for Istanbul as follows: “When it comes to Istanbul, it is possible to find this city, which has been photographed heavily since ancient times, in the midst of the works of many local and foreign photographers. However, like Sudek, like Atget, Brassai or Izis, a photographer who almost identified with this city, became an organic part of it, gradually symbolized it, photographed it with a mad passion throughout his life, with the sensitivity of a poet and the power of observation of a novelist, to Istanbul. If you look for the photographer of the world, I think there is only one person in the world who fits this description: Orta Güler. Orta Güler is a true ‘Istanbul boy,’ with a phrase he often uses. By the way, let’s say that this low-spirited man, who always introduces himself as a “photojournalist” and does not like the term “artist” very much, means something far beyond ordinary documentation by the word “interview”. And when it comes to photographing Istanbul, in the hands of this image master, who has such a daredevil haste and targets far away, Istanbul pretends to be Istanbul, and appears before us with astonishing images, striking stories, fascinating form / content / relationship sequences. Original, magnificent, unique… It is Orta Güler’s Istanbul now!”
Orta Güler Archive and Research Center (AGAVAM)
In 2016, with the agreement in the middle of Orta Güler and Doğuş Cluster Orta Güler Doğuş Art and Muzecilik A.Ş. AGAVAM, which is under its roof, works to ensure that the Orta Güler archive, one of Turkey’s most valuable photographic archives, is preserved as a whole and passed on to future generations. Orta Güler Museum, which was opened in Istanbul Yapı Kredi bomontiada on Orta Güler’s 90th birthday in 2018, works to bring the works of the veteran photographer to wider audiences. The two professionally managed and non-profit art institutions operate in a way that feeds each other operationally and in terms of content. Continuing its work under the leadership of Doğuş Cluster Art Consultant Çağla Saraç, the archive team carries out the classification, inventory, defense, digitization and indexing processes of hundreds of thousands of works by Orta Güler. It is aimed to make the archive collections available to photography enthusiasts and researchers through a portal in the coming period.
