REST IN PEACE ARA GULER

MY LIFE WAS BETTER FOR HAVING MET YOU AND SWAPPED STORIES

I am proud to be the editor of the English language version of PHOTOJOURNALIST: The Life Story of Ara Guler, by the warm, wonderful and talented Nezih Tavlas.

So glad I got up the nerve to approach (the famously cantankerous but infinitely

talented) Ara Guler in Beyoglu during my second visit to Istanbul.

I understand why he thought of himself as a photojournalist.

But he was a great artist.

He was one of the greatest photographers.

I visited Ara Cafe a half dozen times, scouting famous Photo Journalist Guler.

Finally, he was sitting down to some food and tea.

I had bought a rare book of his, haggling at a book fair that was part of Ramazan.

I lugged the heavy book from Taksim to Galatasaray for him to sign.

He was, a most human of human beings.

Frank, honest, humorous.

You cannot capture life they way he does on film, without having a great amount of empathy and love of your fellow brethren on earth.

Less than a month ago, I was in Paris...exploring the stories of Ara Guler from @MagnumPhotos to Salvador Dali to @LeMeurice to the back streets and main

streets of the City of Light.

RIP Ara.

Read the Kindle version of Photojournalist at:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06VT8PN31?pf_rd_p=faa1d3e1-fadf-4279-ac2d-3096206e4690&pf_rd_r=NGRS1YJH5A9JQ2PGRRMQ

Watch the movie on Prime at:

https://www.amazon.com/Eye-Istanbul-Ara-G%C3%BCler/dp/B078HBN2W5/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1540067911&sr=8-5&keywords=ara+guler

Follow

a great Twitter feed at:

@PJournalistNews 

PHOTOJOURNALIST: The Life Story of Ara Guler -- 4

MUST-HAVE BOOK CHRONICLING COLORFUL LIFE OF THE

WORLD’S GREATEST LIVING STREET PHOTOGRAPHER

Photojournalist is about heart...the heart of one of the greatest street photographers to every walk the backstreets of Istanbul and far beyond. It is about the heart of Nezih Tavlas, who painstakingly coaxed and cajoled amazing stories that would otherwise likely go to the grave with Guler, because no one else had the passion and determination to unearth these layered, colorful gems from the humble master.

For anyone who has picked up a camera to document more than family birthdays. For anyone who has traveled to Istanbul. For anyone who has sought to reconcile Turkey's odd 20th century of being torn between east and west -- this book is a must-have.

It's not so much as it is an in print distillation of the better part of a century of a passionate, keen-eyed photojournalists heart, soul, drive, determination, sense of humor, sense of empathy and strong bond with humanity.

And that is very high praise coming from this journalist and author who is himself hard to please when it comes to biographies that are up to the challenge of capturing the essence of their subject.

http://photojournalistaraguler.com/

https://www.amazon.com/Photojournalist-Life-Story-Ara-Guler/dp/1543129447/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1502048568&sr=8-3

PHOTOJOURNALIST: The Life Story of Ara Guler -- 3

MUST-HAVE BOOK CHRONICLING COLORFUL LIFE OF THE
WORLD’S GREATEST LIVING STREET PHOTOGRAPHER

In a sense, Photojournalist: The Life Story of Ara Guler, is two books in one. About 80% of it is well-told (with mom and pop, uncomplicated language) stories of Guler's life, times and tens of thousands of documented bits of life in Turkey and far beyond. 

The other 20% is basically a long Q&A between author and master Guler on everything for his favorite cameras, his life, his eventual switch to digital photography and any number of tidbits.

The Q&A 20 percent is for the die-hard Guler fan. A casual reader may lose interest in the question-response format. Because I had the rare privilege of meeting Guler, talking to him, going through a long out of print book of his photos and bravely seeking his signature on said book -- I read every page in Photojournalist.

Again, the book is not fancy. The English translation even has several instances of odd punctuation and more than a few spots where words run together or multi-syllable words are oddly broken up in type. I could easily look past this. Just as the book is not a technical manual about photography, the typesetting is not a piece of publishing house technical perfection.

http://photojournalistaraguler.com/

https://www.amazon.com/Photojournalist-Life-Story-Ara-Guler/dp/1543129447/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1502048568&sr=8-3

PHOTOJOURNALIST: The Life Story of Ara Guler -- 2

MUST-HAVE BOOK CHRONICLING COLORFUL LIFE OF THE

WORLD’S GREATEST LIVING STREET PHOTOGRAPHER

The book is like the transcribed notes of an entire winter's worth of fireside chats with a compelling, humble and driven master photographer. It's not about technique and kind of camera/lens/lighting. Just like it drives the beauty in his captured images, it is Guler's personality that drives the narrative.

It appears he was not all that keen about spilling his guts, so high praise is owed to Tavlas for coaxing and endless amount of anecdotes about Guler's exploits...through the back streets of Istanbul, through the small towns of Turkey, through national photo assignments and even through celebrity interviews that at first seem out of place for the down to earth intrepid Guler -- whose best work is always in black and white and done with film.

Who would have guessed that man best-loved for pictures of dockworkers, everyday Turks, blue collar tradesman and even peasants -- would have fun hobnobbing and interviewing A-list celebs and Cannes and other festivals. Guler's sharing of tales of what oddballs he had to suffer through to get portraits of Salvador Dali are worth the price of the book alone.

http://photojournalistaraguler.com/

https://www.amazon.com/Photojournalist-Life-Story-Ara-Guler/dp/1543129447/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1502048568&sr=8-3

PHOTOJOURNALIST: The Life Story of Ara Guler -- 1

MUST-HAVE BOOK CHRONICLING COLORFUL LIFE OF THE

WORLD’S GREATEST LIVING STREET PHOTOGRAPHER

Nezih Tavlas' book on legendary Turkish photographer is not fancy at all. It's a very straightforward biography of the world's least-heralded (at least in the US and most of the western world) master photographers. A true living legend.

The best thing about the book is its unassuming nature. It is not fawning, but clearly the author thinks the world of Ara Guler. It does not shy away from the whole truth -- a divorce, a few setbacks, a sometimes curmedgeonly personality of a man who has focused 8 decades of his life as a photojournalist.

It is very easy to think of Guler as an artist. Hundreds of his most famous shots and many more others would look at home as fine art on the wall of any museum. But the Armenian Turk bristles at being called anything but a photojournalist -- an historian with a camera.

For those of us who discovered Guler and cannot have enough, this book includes every vital aspect. From an upper middle class upbringing in the home of a successful Beyoglu pharmacist/businessman father, to a man -- Guler -- who very easily could have lost his life at any number of harrowing scenes, from bombings to fires and battlefields.

http://photojournalistaraguler.com/

https://www.amazon.com/Photojournalist-Life-Story-Ara-Guler/dp/1543129447/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1502048568&sr=8-3