[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Gültekin Çizgen

Gültekin Çizgen was born in 1940 in İstanbul. He was greatly influenced by his father, who was one of the first generation painters of the Republic. Çizgen’s interest in history and culture also came from his father as he worked at the Topkapı Palace Museum and the İstanbul Archeology Museum for many years. Following on his father’s footsteps, Çizgen studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul, now Minan Sinan University. Since his meeting with the camera in 1958, Gültekin Çizgen has been producing works of art in the field photography and other related mediums. Çizgen emerged as one of the leading art photographers of Turkey in the 1960s and influenced many other artists, establishing photography as a respectable art form in Turkey. He is the owner of Fotoğraf Yayınları (Photograph Press) and the founder of the Yeni Fotoğraf (New Photograph) magazine. Moreover, he is a founding member in many respectable arts institutions and societies in Turkey such as the Mimar Sinan University Institute of Photography. Çizgen has traveled extensively across the world and has published his reflections on these experiences in his travel memoirs, and of course his photographs. He has also written several books on the art and methodology of photography. Gültekin Çizgen’s works have been exhibited in numerous countries such as USA, Germany, France, Japan, China and Brazil.