We arrived just as one of the staff was unlocking the front door and were welcomed in without fuss or hesitation, directed up a flight up stairs and into a lobby with a display of books for sale. A long corridor led off this space, with doors opening into five separate galleries. During our 40 minute stay we had the facility entirely to ourselves (something of a departure from many of the city’s often crowded museums).
The corridor space is given over to an illustrated timeline of photographic history, featuring important dates and developments specifically in Turkish photography. The timeline begins traversing down the corridor on the left, continuing back up on the right. A large, readable image of the timeline can be downloaded from the museum’s website here.
Classics of Turkish photography make up the first gallery on the left, the only permanent exhibit apart from the timeline. I did not recognize any of the photos or the names of photographers featured here, which is something of a shame. I enjoyed looking through these images and left wanting to know more. The museum has published a book of the collection, presumably with additional textual information on the history of Turkish photography. It appears, though, to be out of print, and no similar volume was found in visits to Istanbul bookshops.
Of the temporary exhibits, two galleries were given over to Turkish artist Güngör Özsoy. The first was a collection of images taken on movie sets in the 60s and 70s, behind-the-scene shots, as well as others staged and used for promotional purposes, such as lobby cards and posters, or in newspapers and magazines. The images seemed rather pedestrian and did not call for lingering or repeated inspection. Perhaps much of their value derives from their historical (and for a Turkish audience, sentimental) content. Being unfamiliar with Turkish cinema, I didn’t recognize any of the actors or directors populating these images. I can’t even find much about Güngör Özsoy online that isn’t in Turkish. The second gallery featured a collection of blue cityscapes taken in the early morning and evening hours. The content is fairly typical of postcards and photo books of Istanbul: mosques, the Bosphorus, the Galata bridge, the city from the sea. To my eye many were over-saturated in blue and did not look particularly natural.
Turkish auto-parts supplier Orhan Holding has for 10 years sponsored a photography competition, first nationally and now internationally, and selections from the 2014 International Photography Contest were on display across the hall. The prints here featured large black mattes with photographic information, as well as a company logo. This didn’t always compliment the images, but I suppose these prints may be exhibited in venues where their provenance might not be so easily understood by potential viewers, so the branding may make some sense. This collection had perhaps some of the strongest image content in the museum, but unfortunately many of the photographs were marred by excessive post production techniques.
The last and largest gallery at the end of the hall was given over to Polish photographer Tomek Sikora’s Frederic Chopin, a collection of rural images of the Polish countryside transformed into impressionist pastorals. Some of the landscapes were particularly well done and could easily fool the casual viewer into thinking he might be looking at a painting. The portraits were less convincing, either because Sikora wasn’t after the same effect, or he couldn’t quite get it to work on flesh and hair. I didn’t count the number of pieces here, but found them rather repetitive after the first dozen.
The museum bookstore features a fair selection of work by Turkish artists, though many are available only in Turkish. The museum also features a library of photography books that can be perused by visitors. Unfortunately, I did not have a free afternoon to linger.
The Istanbul Photography Museum is certainly worth a visit on your next trip to Istanbul. The facility is centrally located, easy to find, inexpensive (3 lira, or 1.28 USD), features well-labeled displays, and provides ample information in English, not only on site, but on the internet as well. If you don’t have the time to visit Istanbul, visit them online at: http://www.istanbulfotografmuzesi.com
Hey Jeff - How is P & P progressing and how much are you learning? Its certainly got me out with my camera in different situations and I'm really enjoying it. I thought this module would be rather difficult in terms of being in awkward situations but its fun and I'm learning so much
ReplyDelete