Ara Güler Museum

06.10.2023 - 07.04.2024

Anatolia in Colour

“If Evliya Çelebi had taken photographs, he would have been Ara Güler” says Doğan Hızlan.

Throughout his life, Ara Güler travelled to countless places in the world, experienced different geographies, and bore witness to many events. But most of all he photographed the landscapes and peoples of his land. Ara Güler’s sincerity and love for the people of Anatolia comes across in the very photographs that he took of these lands through which he travelled extensively. Ara Güler knows well these lands; he is curious and anticipates where something is of significance to capture. His images reflect his own perspective on life. And we, as the viewers of these photographs, feel as though we have personally travelled to those lands and breathed in the very air of those places. Anatolia in Colour contains many clues into Ara Güler’s art and the devotion to the land which he inhabited. Streets, buildings, and people, some of which or whom no longer exist, come to life once again in Ara Güler’s photographs, reminding us of the abundance and richness of this geography and the cultures that have existed on it.

In celebration of our Republic’s centenary, Anatolia in Colour is another tale that spans Ara Güler’s life; one of light, colour, people, the land…Turkey.