Ara Güler Arşiv Serisi - Siyah Beyaz İstanbul

'' What we see when we examine one of his portrait photographs is not the sitter as filtered through the personality of Ara Güler: rather, it is Ara Güler's personality as filtered through the sitter. Thus we are led to the conclusion that in the endlessly absorbing photographs of Istanbul you are holding in your hand, Ara Güler is Istanbul itself. In any case, the person who is Ara Güler is nothing other than Istanbul. The exuberant richness of a city thousands of years old - a fusion of turquoise and gold - finds itself reflected, almost in its entirety, in Ara's personality. That little girl smiling among the tombstones, those moss- covered slabs of marble, that old man sitting in a coffee-house deep in thought, that boat with its freshly- caulked hull, that Bosphorus ferryboat whose lights are gradually dimming as it sails away into the distance, that garbage collector, that tinker, that greengrocer, that migrant, that seller of hand- painted kerchiefs, that wooden house, that alley, that street - all of these are Ara Güler himself. '' Onat Kutlar

“Ara Güler’in İstanbul fotoğraflarında fotoğrafçı (Ara Güler) ile fotoğrafı çekilen (İstanbul) arasında, beylik deyimle bir aşk ilişkisi görmek mümkündür. Fotoğraflara bakan daha dikkatli bir göz ise, bu ilişkinin sadece aşk ile kısıtlı olmadığını görecektir. Ara Güler, doğup büyüdüğü kente yalnızca aşk ile değil; tutkuyla, kıskançlıkla, öfkeyle, şefkatle, sevdayla, bellekle, yaşanmış her saniyesinin, her ışık huzmesinin üstüne titreyen bir sevgiyle, hiçbir ayrıntıyı gözardı etmeyen bir dikkatle bakıyordur. Kent ile (bu İstanbul kentiyle) Ara Güler arasındaki ilişkidir söz konusu.” Memet Baydur

'' In Ara Güler's photographs of Istanbul, one can discern the existence of a powerful love relationship - the use a somewhat hackneyed phrase - between the photographer (Ara Güler) and the subject being photographer (Ara Güler) and the subject being photographed (Istanbul). On closer examination, however, we will see that there is a great deal more to this relationship than just love and affection: Ara Güler looks on the city in which he was born and bred not only with these feelings, but also with passion, with a jealous possesivennes, even with anger - and at the same time with sympathy, compassion and an intense longing sparked off by his memories. He is determined not just to cherish every moment of experience, but also to capture everything contained within it - every single ray of light - with a caring meticulousness that does not permit a single detail to pass unnoticed. The photograph express, in its totality, the complex relationship between the city - Istanbul - and Ara Güler.'' Memet Baydur