Cityrama

“Cityrama”, a photography exhibition has opened on 29 June in the Photography Gallery of İstanbul Modern. This exhibition is organized in coordination with the UIA's 22nd World Congress of Architecture which was held in İstanbul between 2-10 July 2005.

Once again sponsored by Fujifilm and curated by Engin Özendes, the exhibition will feature the interpretations of prominent Turkish photographers such as Cengiz Akduman, Arif Ascı, Ibrahim Aysil, Cemal Emden, Sinan Kocaslan, Selim Seval and Cem Turgay. Cityrama display a viewpoint that uses photographic aesthetic and searches for artistic interpretations.

Architectural texture is the most important element defining a city, and the first information about a city is provided by its buildings. As the exact representation of reality, photography has been the vehicle of city images.

What transforms still images into artistic photographs is the way they give understanding and insight into a city, thus revealing the city’s unique character through the personal style of the photographer.

Photographers portraying their own city rediscover the buildings, squares, monuments and streets they know so well when they look at them afresh through the camera lens, capturing the city's historical, cultural and social identity, and its living spirit in pictures that incorporate their own aesthetic understanding.

Engin Özendes explains that “Cityrama” is an exhibition not of answers but questions.

Do we know the history, culture, art and people of the city we live in? In which corners of that city do we enjoy the irresistible fascination of the changing seasons to the full? With what emotions do we look at the grinding sharp-toothed machines of the age and the old buildings that silently surrender without a fight? While Istanbul expands in all directions, carrying its sorrows with it, is something lost or is it a natural process of growth? Does that moment chosen by the photographer record the destruction of a city's skyline? Does it bear witness to the development of an organism? Is this gigantic city, with all its fascination and silence, the most honorable ancestor of the entire world?

Pressetext

Cityrama
Photography Exhibition at Istanbul Modern
Kurator: Engin Özendes

mit Cengiz Akduman, Arif Asci, Ibrahim Aysil, Cemal Emden, Sinan Kocaslan, Selim Seval, Cem Turga