A photographer, Ara Güler said again and again, he was not. And an artist? Since he could be really annoying. "No!" He really does not care about art! He also had no understanding for the people who bought prints of his photos for thousands of euros. Although, well, actually, that's the way to make money that way, he said, laughing to himself. And then he pushed behind: "I'm a journalist, a reporter."

Photography is the documenting of the world, he said, and his world was above all Istanbul. The old Istanbul of the fifties and sixties. But later he also went with his camera through the city, so they called him the "Eye of Istanbul". His black-and-white photographs should continue to shape the image of his city to this day, together with the texts of the Nobel Prize for Literature Orhan Pamuk.

Güler staged the metropolis: the old tram in a snowstorm, on the shopping street Istiklal Caddesi; Ferries, steamboats and fishermen on the Bosphorus; Craftsman, worker, the simple people on the street. Istanbul is for him "like a box full of jewels and precious stones," he described the place.

He also photographed Dalí, Churchill, the Callas, Tito, Fellini, Adenauer, Hitchcock. Güler was also a portraitist of the beautiful and famous, the rich and powerful. He took the last shots of Indian head of government Indira Gandhi shortly before she was shot dead in 1984 by two of her bodyguards. "What did I travel," he once said. "Actually too much, actually enough for me Istanbul." He preferred the everyday moments rather than the historical moments. But both he captured in pictures with his Leica.

When met in Istanbul in the café named after him Ara, in Beyoglu district, he often scolded his hometown. "She has become so ugly!" Most of all, he was annoyed by the shopping malls, the new streets, the building rage. The people, he found, had "lost the sense of aesthetics". Actually, he swore passionately, almost every second sentence you did not need to write down because you could not publish it anyway. In the twinkle of his eyes, until recently, he saw his thieving joy, as he had some reporters despaired. A few sentences later he became milder again. "Oh, even the ugliest parts are quite nice." And then: "I know this city, I've pissed in every corner." Again, that laugh in his eyes.

AFP

Güler in August 2018 in Istanbul

On August 16, 1928 Güler was born near Taksim Square as the son of ethnic Armenians. In Beyoglu his father, an art lover, ran a pharmacy. He wanted the son to become a doctor. "We had many friends who were theater people," Güler recalled. "My father sold them make-up." The son moved to the artists, to the iridescent and eccentric. He first wanted to become an actor, then a scriptwriter or film director. As a teenager, he had started to take pictures, he soon sold his first pictures to Turkish newspapers and magazines. He had taught himself to photograph and work in the photo lab.

"Oh, are only photos."

Güler began acting training, studied economics and eventually decided to pursue a career as a photojournalist. At the age of 22, he enrolled in Yeni Istanbul (New Istanbul), earned a reputation as a talent, and later received commissions from magazines such as Time Life, Paris Match, and The Star. Famous photojournalists such as Henri Cartier-Bresson promoted the young Turk, he became a member of the prestigious agency Magnum. In between, he had to do his military service in a tank brigade of the Turkish army. "Shitty time," he judged her retrospectively.

In his archive in the building next to Café Ara, boxes of negatives and slides of his reportage trips, sorted by country, piled up. One would have to keep them in air-conditioned rooms, make prints, make them available to the public. "Oh," Güler said and waved. "Are only photos." In the office next door, a drawing, an original by Picasso, hung between the postcards and the photos. He signed it in gratitude because Güler portrayed him so beautifully.

Pablo Picasso. Shot by Ara Güler

A post shared by Ara Güler (@araguler_official) on Jan 13, 2016 at 1:55 PST

In December 2015, Güler once again made headlines when he drove to the presidential palace of Recep Tayyip Erdogan and photographed the head of state and his family. For that he collected a lot of criticism. He is only an observer and never makes himself in common with those he photographs, he defended himself. Anyone who knew Güler knew how critical he was of Erdogan.

For health reasons, he has not been well for a few years. At age 85, five years ago, he came to intensive care because of severe kidney disease. Rumors circulated that he was dying. Güler heard about it, was promptly photographed and sent the picture via Twitter in the world. "I'm still alive," was the message. But since then he had to dialysis regularly. "Do not kid," he said.

On Wednesday evening, after a heart attack, he died in his beloved Istanbul.