Ara Güler
I’m listening
to Istanbul
1950–2010
I visited Ara Güler’s studio in the 90’s. To show us some photographs, he reached for boxes of Kodak paper containing his archive.
When asked to design a book of his photographs I thought what could be more natural than to mark the sections of the book in Kodak yellow? A new box being opened to reveal new content.
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The typeface used for the title refers to the letters stencilled onto the yellow signboards of Istanbul’s municipal buses in the 70’s, a decade when Ara Güler was most active.
Using quotes from Nezih Tavlaş’s book Ara Güler, I established themes around which I could group the photographs. The book was printed in three languages. Grouping the captions on one page at the beginning of each section made the print run easy and economical.
There are no page numbers. Plate numbers are sufficient to refer to the captions. Thus there is minimum intrusion to the pages showing the photographs.
Revising the book for the new edition with Ara Güler and Ufuk Şahin at Ara Cafe in Beyoğlu.
The book was printed in Turkish as İstanbul’u dinliyorum, 1950–2010 and in German as Ich höre Istanbul, 1950–2010.
Published by Kitap Yayınevi in 2010, by Masa in 2013, reprinted as an enlarged edition by Masa in 2015.
Printed by Mas Matbaa.