Vancouver Turkish Film Festival: The Eye of Istanbul tells tale of spectacular photographer Ara Güler

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      The most famous Armenian-Canadian photogapher, without a doubt, was Yousef Karsh. His memorable portraits of prime ministers, including Winston Churchill, continue to capture the public's imagination nearly two decades after his death.

      In Turkey, it's another photographer of Armenian ancestry, Ara Güler, who is seen as his nation's all-time great.

      Güler's canvas was his hometown of Istanbul, which he captured on gorgeous black-and-white images for decades.

      He became known as "the Eye of Istanbul", and today, a movie of the same name is screening at the Vancouver Turkish Film Festival.

      Directed by Binnur Karaevli, it will be screened at 1:45 p.m. in the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts at SFU Woodward's.

      Watch the trailer for The Eye of Istanbul.

      The film is not only worth watching because of Güler's colourful career, which included photographing celebrities like Sophia Loren and Alfred Hitchcock and shooting news coverage. 

      It also features his incredible images of Istanbul and the famed Bosphorous, offering an opportunity to see the historic city and its waterway in ways that most people have never imagined.

      "They call me a photographer," Güler says in the film. "Imagine that. I'm a historian. I record history."

       

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