Ara Güler Museum

08.05.2024 - 27.10.2024

Fishermen of Kumkapı

The Fishermen of Kumkapı exhibition at the Ara Güler Museum, on view from 8 May – 27 October 2024, takes its starting point from Ara Güler’s series of articles entitled ‘With the Armenian Fishermen of Kumkapı’, published as a seven day serialised report in the Jamanak newspaper from 21 – 27 May 1952. In this series, which Ara Güler prepares with Vartan Ozinyan, his schoolmate from the Private Getronagan Armenian High School, Ozinyan pens the first and last day articles. These articles and their corresponding photographs shed light onto the now non-existent Küçük Deniz (‘Small Sea’) Street, the fishermen’s harbour, the labourers who worked there and a way of life. Through the publication of With the Armenian Fishermen of Kumkapı series, published when Ara Güler was only 24 years old, Ara Güler established his place in the realm of photo-journalism at an early age. Constituting one of his most important works helping him garner acclaim in his profession, this photo-reportage also serves as a harbinger of Ara Güler’s imminent successful international career.