Istanbul_ The Collected Traveler_ An Inspired Companion Guide - Barrie Kerper [91]
“In the old days,” he said, “I always loved the company of older people. On our early trips, on those wonderful sea voyages, I met some really great older people who were really doing it, not just traveling but scribbling and painting and going to Florence to study the history of art. When I saw them I thought, well, there’s no end to it … There is an end, but we …”
He didn’t finish his sentence. Instead he looked out of the window for a long time, then turned to give me a wary look, as if he feared I was about to launch into one of my lectures about pensions and health insurance and the Importance of Planning Ahead. I’m sure these lectures are made all the grimmer by the fact that I don’t really believe them.
How could I? I’m my father’s daughter. I was brought up to trust in the chance encounter and happy accident, and the importance of never knowing what will happen next. I know I shouldn’t say it, but no, I don’t want them to suddenly get sensible. I want them to keep on traveling—and returning to the place where it all began.
“After meeting my husband and moving to Turkey ten years ago, I feel so lucky to be living in one of the most amazing cities in the world. I love the mix of old and new. I am surrounded each day with the strength of the Ottoman and Byzantine empires overflowing with history and an emerging European capital with all of the modern wonders. Istanbul has it all and I am pleased to call it my home.”
—Karen Fedorko, owner, Sea Song Tours, Istanbul
Turkey’s Passionate Interpreter to the World
STEPHEN KINZER
ARA GÜLER, a photojournalist of Armenian descent, has earned the nicknames the “eye of Istanbul” and the “photographer of Istanbul.” In 1958, Time-Life opened a branch in Turkey and Güler became its first correspondent for the Near East. He was a member of the prestigious Magnum Photo agency, and he was accepted as the first and only Turkish member of the American Society of Magazine Photographers. But Güler is best known for his black-and-white pictures taken almost exclusively with a Leica camera in Istanbul in the 1950s and ’60s.
Ara Güler: Retrospective (YGS Yayınları, 2007), the book that he thought would never be published, is now available in both paperback and hardcover editions. The book is divided into three sections: “Classics,” which includes black-and-white photos all taken in Turkey, mostly Istanbul; “Reportage,” an all-color section of photos taken in India, Indonesia, New York, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Iran, Pakistan, Egypt, Beirut, and Sudan; and “Portraits,” a black-and-white section of notable personalities. In the foreword, James Fox, former editor in chief of Magnum Photo, says that Güler’s photographs “show great honesty of subject and mankind, something that comes from the heart and an alert eye, a rapid perception and composition.” He adds, “My advice to young photographers is to stand back first and ‘think’—that makes the difference between the millions of amateurs and the talented few. Experience and talent like that of Ara Güler do not happen overnight.” When I looked into obtaining the books mentioned in the article below, I learned they are all quite rare, and fairly expensive.
STEPHEN KINZER is a veteran foreign correspondent and was named the first bureau chief in Istanbul for The New York Times in 1996. (He is now based in Chicago.) He is also the author of Crescent & Star: Turkey Between Two Worlds (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2001).
THIS IS the Turkey of the photographer Ara Güler: A confused child peers from behind decaying tombstones inscribed with ornate Arabic script. Laborers unload hulking freighters. Couples walk down foggy streets lined with old wooden houses. Men gaze out over their drinks or contemplate rugged landscapes. Autos jam broad avenues. Horses pull carts up snowy hillsides. And Muslim worshipers bow in prayer by the hundreds.
One of the few Turks to have reached an internationally acknowledged pinnacle of creative achievement, Mr. Güler is driven by a passion for his native land and especially for Istanbul,