The quality of the photographs reproduced in the book are stunning, with Özgünaydın I catching the ' various buildings and the city in a jiumber of moods. If s always difficult to know how to make a representative selection of a place when you've spent so much time there but he has done an excellent job
Lütfi Özgünaydın’s ode to Mardin
ISTANBUL-Turkish Daily News
Who would have thought that a book could be a tribute to a city, combining emotional reactions with illustrative photographs Lütfi Özgünaydın has done just that in his book on Mardin, a city in southeastern Turkey with a 7,000-year history of human settlement.
Friends have often said that Mardin was almost a magical city, one that has been preserved over the years and one that combines a myriad of histories, languages and religions. They couldn't understand why people wouldn't visit there. Perhaps it's because this city was and still is one of the least discovered treasures of Turkey that takes a long time to reach and has been unstable until recently because of terrorism. Today, however, Mardin is on Turkey's cultural map as a city that demonstrates just how a place with an extraordinary history can be brought alive. It is seen as a place where religions and cultures meet in tolerance.
Özgünaydın's book is titled simply "Mardin." The 118-page book in Turkish and English is a combination of essays and photographs using an alternating method. For every five or six photos there is an emotive essay in which the author enlightens us about Mardin, its history, what it is like today as he has
Friends have often said that Mardin was almost a magical city, one that has been preserved over the years and combines a myriad of histories, languages and religions
seen it over the years and what occurred in his mind as he went from place to place in Mardin.
The quality of the photographs reproduced in the book are stunning, with Özgünaydın catching the various buildings and the city in a number of moods. It's always difficult to know how to make a representative selection of a place when you've spent so much time there, but he has done an excellent job.
One aspect that seems to have struckl the photographer is the differing colors that appear over the course of a day. He | is especially attracted by the golden quality of the light, and this shows in the I photographs he has chosen to include in [ this book. Whether one is looking at his | cityscapes or over the Mesopotamian plain that extends below this hillside city, he has capture what influenced hir the most -- the co! and the deep, darl shadows. Buildings display | the typical architectural designs of the area and its intriguing decorations are amply illustrated - the intricate stonework that might once have been carved from wood, the horseshoe and keystone arches, barrel vaults and massive I columns, alleys leading through shadowy I buildings, ceremonies attended by members of the local congregations, tall minarets and intriguing mosques and all ' presided over by the famous Mardin pigeons, including the carved stone ones. One of the best-preserved houses in Mardin is that of the Mungans. They are from one of the oldest families in Mardin, | and the house is hundreds of years old. The family has produced important family members, including Murathan Mungan, one of Turkey's leading writers today. Songul Mungan has especially interested herself in preservation and restoration, filling a generations-old mansion with flowers as well. Özgünaydın's background: Özgünaydın is a student of famed Turkish photographer Professor Sabit Kalfagil, who writes in the introduction to the book: "It is very clear that Lütfi Özgünaydın's photographs are not vain I documentation; they have been shot by I an eye, looking with love and interest. We aren't only interested in what these I photographs contain. We also want to I find in them something about us. This is I what makes photography sharable. J share I the love of country that I see in I Özgünaydın's photographs."
Born in 1945 in eastern Anatolia, I Özgünaydın originally studied to be a I primary school teacher but then began I reporting for the Hurriyet News Agency. I Eventually, he decided to devote hjs time I and energy to photography and literature. I He has held several exhibitions and slide I shows and has won a number of prizes. He I has worked in recent years with his sons I Kamil and Burhan on a number of I projects. He also praises his wife, Songül, for her support as she has accompanied him on all of his photographic journeys.This book, which has been published in limited edition, has the support of the mayor and governor of Mardin and, in particular, businessman Zeynel Abidin Erdem, whose company Genpa underwrote the publication of the book. Erdem's family comes from Mardin, having migrated there centuries earlier from Arabia and are descendants of the Prophet Muhammed's family. He is a highly successful businessman, especially in the telecommunications field, and is recognized as a supporter of cultural endeavors. So Özgünaydın's Mardin project was something dear to his heart.
Özgünaydın's photographic exhibit opens today at the Atatürk Cultural Center's Art Gallery in Taksim and continues through Feb. 2.
Leyla Alaton Günyeli