iPera MuseumTepebaşı
Behind the Camera of the Republic
Flawed and overlooked press photographs of early Republican Istanbul, 1920s to early 1950s, from the Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation archive.
Més a Istanbul
Selahattin Giz, a press photographer for Cumhuriyet, used to check the bins at Istanbul's press building for glass and acetate negatives his colleagues had thrown away, then filed them in envelopes and boxes. This show is built from those rejects: blurred frames, damaged negatives, shots from seconds before or after the one that ran, and negatives an editor cut, scraped or masked.
The photographs, 1920s to early 1950s, are mostly by Giz and his mentor Namık Görgüç. They show the Istanbul the young Republic's official image left out: street vendors, homeless people, prisoners, courthouse corridors, crowds after accidents, fires and floods. It fills the third floor, and Forbes Türkiye's writer warned that you can lose a good few hours there, mostly over portraits shot for news stories and women photographed in the street without knowing it.
Come for the city, not for polish. Tickets are 450 TL (250 TL reduced), entry is free on Fridays from 18:00 to 22:00, and students go free on Wednesdays.
No et perdis
Waiting for the Aviation Lottery draw
Look for the 1930s crowd packed outside the Darülfünun Conference Hall in Beyazıt, waiting to hear the Aviation Lottery numbers.
Namık Görgüç on the Beyazıt Fire Tower
Giz's mentor, the press photographer himself, caught up on the city's fire lookout tower sometime between 1925 and 1947.
Athletes at Sirkeci Station
A team of athletes lined up at Sirkeci Station before 1925, one of the oldest frames in the show.
The typesetters of Büyük Gazete
Compositors pose mid-job in the newspaper's composing room, setting the type that the photographs on these walls were meant to sit beside.
The edited negatives
Look closely at negatives with areas cut out, scraped or masked: the marks are the editor's, deciding what readers would see.
Ideal per a
- Cultura barata
- Visites al vespre
- En solitari
- Friquis
Millor evitar-ho si
You want polished, famous images: the show is built from blurred, damaged and rejected frames.
També a Pera Museum
Ara a prop
A prop
Crèdits de les imatges
8
- Behind the Camera of the RepublicCourtesy of Pera Museum
- 15 Years at Salt: Exhibition PostersPhoto: Metean Bars (Salt)
- Across the Seas: Özer Kabaş and His TimesPhoto: Metean Bars (Salt)
- Seyahat Sanatı: From the Sadberk Hanım Museum and Ömer Koç CollectionsCourtesy of Meşher
- Pera MuseumTatiana Matlina / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- SALT BeyoğluMtls88 / Wikimedia Commons, CC0
- Yapı Kredi Kültür SanatBasak / Wikimedia Commons, CC0
- Museum of Innocenceuholz / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0