People Attract People: The Adventure of Humanity in Photography of Turkey from Othmar Pferschy to Today

The exhibition "People Attract People", selected from Istanbul Modern Photography Collection, displayed the work of eighty photographers from Turkey, the photographs of Turkey shot over a period of eighty years.

The history of photography in Turkey from the Ottoman to the Republican era was shaped first by European travelers who were mainly interested in the landscape and the daily life of the country, and then, under the influence of the photography studios opening in the Pera district, by portrait photography. First utilized by the head of the Ministry of Information and Publications Vedat Nedim Tör to publicize Turkey, reproductions of the finely detailed photography of Othmar Pferschy on the covers of books and magazines, banknotes and postage stamps, began a tradition that has continued virtually unbroken until today. Some photographers were drawn to the nature and historical texture of Turkey, and others investigated daily life in the developing big cities, primarily Istanbul, then moved focused on the people in the country and their lives. Photography thus fulfilled its sociological function of recording new developments and situations related to human life and took up human life as its main topic through portraiture.

Artists: Özcan Ağaoğlu, Cengiz Akduman, Yasin Akgül, Ersin Alok, Abdurrahman Antakyalı, Arif Aşçı, Mustafa Kemal Aydoğan, Tahsin Aydoğmuş, Mehmet Baltacı, Şinasi Barutçu, Emre Başak, Kürşat Bayhan, Sökmen Baykara, Ozan Bilgiseren, Oğuz Nusret Bilik, İhya Bozkurt, Atila Cangır, Ergun Çağatay, Nevzat Çakır, İsa Çelik, Manuel Çıtak, Gültekin Çizgen, Haluk Çobanoğlu, Yusuf Darıyerli, Mehmet Demirci, Mehmet Naci Demirkol, Çetin Ergand-Süreyya Yılmaz Dernek, Murat Dikmen, Saygun Dura, Şakir Eczacıbaşı, Ahmet Elhan, Cemal Emden, Selçuk Emden, Nurettin Erkılıç, Rıza Ezer, Baha Gelenbevi, Ahmet Öner Gezgin, Selahattin Giz, Ara Güler, Şemsi Güner, Selim Güneş, Abdullah Hekimhan, Zeki Faik İzer, Yılmaz Kaini, Sabit Kalfagil, Mustafa Kapkın, Cengiz Karlıova, Şahin Kaygun, Gündüz Kayra, İzzet Keribar, Mehmet Kısmet, Haluk Konyalı, A. Halim Kulaksız, Yıldız Moran, Sebla Selin Ok, Ömer Orhun, Fikret Otyam, Bülent Özgören, Tahir Özgür, Emin Özmen, Othmar Pferschy, Fethi Sabunsoy, Ozan Sağdıç, Özkan Samioğlu, Ahmet Sel, Selahattin Sevi, Hikmet Tanılkan, Etem Tem, Atilla Torunoğlu, Süreyya Yılmaz Dernek-Ergün Turan, Cem Turgay, Yusuf Tuvi, Cafer T. Türkmen, Tuna Uysal, Tahir Ün, Hakan Yaşar, Orhan Yayla, Tamer Yılmaz, İbrahim Zaman

Curator: Merih Akoğul