Tavern Photographs of Ara Guler as a Social Memory Record
Melis YeniciThe documentary feature of photography has been associated with social memory since its invention. This study aims to examine the photographs of Ara Güler, one of the leading names of Turkish photography, reflecting Istanbul tavern culture in the context of social memory. The relationship between photography and social memory is examined not only in terms of visual narrative but also sociologically. In the first section, social memory theory developed by Maurice Halbwachs, cultural memory theories developed by Jan Assmann, and then documentary photography, which is the type of photography connected with social memory, are explained historically. In the second section, the culture of Istanbul’s taverns is described. Istanbul, whose history goes back 3000 years, has a strong tavern tradition as it is a port city. In the second section, this powerful tradition is examined in the light of Evliya Çelebi’s extensive knowledge of life in 17th century Istanbul and specifically of the city’s traditional taverns. Also in the second section, after the history of alcoholic beverages and the culture of Istanbul’s taverns has been described, we examine Ara Güler’s photographs of the 1950’s and 1960’s taken in the taverns and “Koltuk Meyhaneleri” of Istanbul. It was concluded that these photographs taken by Güler are both a reference point and an important social memory record enabling future generations to remember these taverns which are now seen as a nostalgic concept.
Toplumsal Bellek Kaydı Olarak Ara Güler’in Meyhane Fotoğrafları
Melis YeniciFotoğrafın belge özelliği taşıması, icadından bu yana toplumsal bellek ile ilişkisi sorgulanan bir araç olmasını sağlamıştır. Bu çalışmada da, Türk fotoğrafçılığının önde gelen isimlerinden Ara Güler’in, İstanbul meyhane kültürünü yansıtan fotoğraflarının toplumsal bellek bağlamında incelenmesi amaçlanmaktadır. Fotoğrafın toplumsal bellek ile olan ilişkisi sadece görsel anlatı boyutunda değil, sosyolojik olarak da irdelenmiştir. İlk bölümde Maurice Halbwachs’ın geliştirdiği toplumsal bellek kuramı ve Jan Assmann’ın geliştirdiği kültürel bellek kuramları daha sonra toplumsal bellek ile bağlantısı olan fotoğraf türü ve belgesel fotoğrafçılık tarihsel olarak açıklanmıştır. İkinci bölümde İstanbul meyhane kültürü aktarılmıştır. Tarihi 3000 yıl öncesine uzanan İstanbul, bir liman kenti olması sebebiyle güçlü bir meyhane geleneğine sahiptir, ikinci bölümün devamında da bu güçlü gelenek, Evliya Çelebi’nin 17. yüzyıl İstanbul’undaki meyhaneler ve oradaki yaşam ile ilgili aktardığı geniş bilgiler ışığında incelenmiştir. Bu bölümün sonunda Türk fotoğrafçılığının önde gelen isimlerinden Ara Güler’in 50’li ve 60’lı yıllarda İstanbul’un koltuk meyhanelerinde ve sazlı meyhanelerinde çekmiş olduğu fotoğraflar ve bu fotoğrafların toplumsal bellek ile bağlantısı aktarılmıştır. Güler’in çektiği bu fotoğrafların bugün artık nostaljik bir kavram olarak görülen bu tür meyhaneleri hatırlayabilmemiz için birer işaret noktası ve önemli toplumsal bellek kayıtları olduğu sonucuna varılmıştır.
This study aims to examine the photographs of Ara Güler, which have an important place in Turkish photography, reflecting Istanbul tavern culture in the context of social memory. TDK defines the word ‘memory’ as follows: “The subjects that are experienced are recalled by means of the power to consciously store their relationship with the past, through repertoire, mind, and memory.” Memory is needed for recall. Information obtained by experience or by other means is stored in memory for recall. Memory has been a topic of discussion since Ancient Greece because of this extremely important task. Memory, which for centuries was thought to be only personal , began to be examined socially in the 20th century. The term social memory was first used in 1902 by the Austrian author Hugo von Hofmannsthal, but it was Maurice Halbwachs who developed and researched this concept in depth. Halbwachs argues that the memory that belongs to the individual can only be determined socially and can exist socially. Halbwachs’ theory contains reference points that enable us to recall memories. These reference points may be a perfume scent, a piece of music or a photograph. Like individual memories, societies also have well-established reference points in their collective memories. Since photography is a reference point, it is closely related to both individual and social memory. Jan Assmann, believing that Halbwachs’ theory did not suggest a means of transferring experiences within the group to later generations, developed the theory of cultural memory. These special carriers may be shamans, bards, griots, priests, teachers, artists, scribes, scholars and all the people who are authorized to carry information, regardless of their names.
With the invention of photography in the 19th century, the photographer emerged as an important carrier of cultural memory. Considering these theories, the first type of photography that comes to mind is documentary photography. Documentary photography can be regarded as a realistic and objective representation of things of historical significance. The photograph has been regarded as a document from the moment it was invented. Therefore, it is possible to date the history of documentary photography back to the invention of photography. The first examples of documentary photography were given by David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson in 1842, a few years after the invention of photography. In the following years, many photographers carried out studies in this field. Documentary photographers finally appeared in Turkey, though later than in Europe. The first examples of Turkish documentary photography were produced in 1930 by Selahattin Giz. In the 1950s, photographers such as Ara Güler, Yıldız Moran, Semiha Es, Ozan Sağdıç and İnal Tengizman started to attract attention in Turkish Documentary Photography. The photographs of the taverns, which are the subject of our study, were also taken by Ara Güler.
Ara Güler, who has an important place in Turkish photography, was born on August 16, 1928 in Istanbul. Güler’s career began while working in film studios while still in high school. In 1950, he began working as a journalist at Yeni Istanbul Newspaper. The 1950s was the decade in which Güler started to rise rapidly in his career. The photographs taken in Istanbul taverns, which are the subject of our study, are also among the works of Güler from the 1950s and 1960s.
The city of Istanbul, which was founded 3000 years ago, has a rich tavern culture due to being a port city. It is known that in Istanbul, which was first called Byzantion and then Constantinople, there were various taverns called taverneia, pouskareia, kapeleia. During the Byzantine period, the area where the taverns were most concentrated in Constantinople was the area around Eminönü and Galata. After the conquest of Istanbul by the Turks, the structure of this region was not changed and the tavern culture continued in the same locations as prior to the conquest of the city. During the Ottoman period, taverns, like other professional guilds, belonged to a “Gedik”. Hamr Emini was the head of the taverns and was chosen from the non-Muslim population. Legal taverns were called “Gedikli Meyhane” and illegal taverns were called “Koltuk Meyhanesi”. “Gedikli Meyhaneler” and “Koltuk meyhaneleri” served different social classes. “Gedikli Meyhaneler” served socio-economically higher-class people, and “Koltuk meyhaneleri” served socio-economically lower-class people.
In the 1950s, machinery started to be used in the agricultural inductry and as this situation increased unemployment in the rural areas People started to migrate to the cities which had just started to industrialize. As a result of this, Istanbul became one of the cities that received a lot of migration and the socio-cultural structure of the city began to change. In the early years of migration, migrants from the countryside filled the “Koltuk Meyhaneleri” that had served the lower classes for centuries. The photographs taken by Ara Güler in the “Koltuk Meyhaneleri” and other taverns of Istanbul in the 1950s and 1960s serve as a reference point for us to remember these nostalgic taverns in our social memory.
