Beaux Arts Magazine reports on a new expanded edition of Ara Güler's iconic photography book "Istanbul," originally published in 2008. The edition, released by Éditions du Pacifique in collaboration with the Ara Güler Museum, features new scans from original negatives and updated captions based on archival research. The article highlights Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk's preface, in which he praises Güler as the photographer who best captured Istanbul's streets, people, and melancholic spirit in the 1950s and 1960s.
This matters because Ara Güler (1928–2018), a Magnum Photos member known as "the Eye of Istanbul," created a visual memory of a city that has since transformed. His images embody "hüzün," a uniquely Istanbulite feeling of nostalgic melancholy. The reissue not only preserves Güler's legacy but also offers contemporary audiences a chance to experience a lost Istanbul through restored, high-quality reproductions, reinforcing the enduring power of photography to document cultural heritage and urban change.