Istanbul hosts special event to honor Turkish-Armenian photographer Ara Güler

An event to honor famous Turkish-Armenian photographer and photojournalist Ara Guler was held Friday in Istanbul as senior media figures paid their respect personally to the legendary photographer, Daily Sabah reported.

Speaking at the Culture and Congress Center in Üsküdar’s Bağlarbaşı, Güler emphasized the importance of history as a science, saying it was the only way to truly learn one’s past.

“Güler has told us about the story of Istanbul, Aphrodisias, Dali and Picasso. We are a nation with great stories, legends and tales,” Presidential Spokesperson İbrahim Kalın said while describing Güler’s prints that has captured the lives of people and the most important events since the 50s.

Ara Güler is a world famous Istanbul-Armenian photographer-journalist and is commonly referred to as the “Eye of Istanbul” or the “Photographer of Istanbul”. He was born in 1928 in Istanbul to ethnic Armenian parents.

An awardee of the Best Photographer of the Century, Ara Güler took the pictures of famous people such as Winston Churchill, Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, Alfred Hitchcock, William Saroyan, Sergei Parajanov and the others. Many of Ara Güler’s photographic works are to be found in a number of museums, as well as private and national collections worldwide.