Timurtaş Onan

This present publication covering works from 2000 to the present day brings together the many sides of Timurtaş Onan’s talent, interest and very particular and perceptive vision of this great city going back more than 30 years.

Istanbul: ‘A City of Strange and Curious Moments’, striking in black and white with their restrained and brilliantly effective play of light and shade images and existential moments of the city are both a reflection of the human spirit and the spirit of Istanbul today.

Istanbul is the meeting of Europe and Asia and contemporary Istanbul offers, as it has throughout its entire history, an extraordinary range of the human condition: race, ethnicity and religion; the very rich to the very poor; the palaces and mansions, the simple dwellings and the dilapidated buildings , the homeless, the old and the young.

This collection is not a focus on the familiar architectural treasures of Istanbul but Istanbul pulsing with life at times oddly and with such variety. It is an inspirational work of passion and as always in his work there is the loving appreciation of life, all life, human or other, birds, (a favourite theme of his) dogs and cats; life in all its many forms played out not only in the context of the familiar beautifies of the city but also within those other parts both contemporary and of another time: the force of life and the passage of life.

This is the story of Istanbul today.

HC. Timurtas Onan was born and brought up in Istanbul. Becoming involved in photography in 1980 he has worked as a professional photographer for the past 25 years. Through this period he has participated in, organised and attended many photographic events, taking part in and holding exhibitions of his work both at home in Turkey and abroad and also acting as a jury member for national and international photographic competitions.

His work has involved international photographic projects, the creation of documentary films on socially relevant issues and he is particularly well known for his distinctive projects on Istanbul. His work as an artist can be seen in many public and private collections in Turkey and abroad.

As I stroll Ýstanbul's streets to capture the story of it's citizens, it is not what fisrt jumps to the eye but what is staged in the background that draws my attention. If the photograp I have taken render this feeling, then I have reached my goal. I strive for a pure compostion in my subjects. "Ýstanbul Blues" is a selection of photograps which expresses feeling as the blue note in Jazz and Blues, reflecting pain and sorrow whit low frequency sounds.