Othmar Pferschy is not exactly a household name in the world of documentary photography but this Austrian cameraman did amass a large archive during his almost half a century work in Turkey where he arrived on October 9th 1926. For the first five years, the turbulent period of the newly declared Republic, Pferschy worked with Jean Weinberg a photographer and owner of the "Foto Francais" in Istanbul. At the begining of February the Istanbul Modern Museum opened up an exhibition of photos (from original negatives, many of which were used in producing books, magazines, almanacs and banknotes)by Othmar Pferschy titled "Under the Light of the Republic". It will be on until May 14th.
A friend, who was driving me to the opening was freshly arrived in the 16-million Istanbul and got stuck (we were helplessly lost) in a maze of streets near Karakoy. Eventually we did not make it for the opening. There went my plan to talk to Pferschy's daughter Astrid von Schell, herself an accomplished tourist-site photographer, and try to persuade her to allow me use some of her photos of contemporary Turkey in my book about this country. She does a lot of landscape photography and recently supplied photos for Scott Redford's "The Tamed Hills of Alanya" (published by Cornucopia) which I like very much. The Seljuk sultans fell in love with the place in the thirteenth century and left a legacy of walled gardens and verdant terraces which Astrid, in her turn, brings now so vividly to the world.
(Interior of Aya Sofya by Pfercy) Last year Astrid donated to Turkey the complete archive of her father. By doing so she indeed kept the big chunk of her promise to a dying man. The Austrian-born photographer was definitely not the only one who registered various events from the life of Ataturk. A score of other (and often visibly more talented in handling the arrangement of lense appertures and the developing, angles and composition of shots) photographers, Turks, produced a myriad of photos of that period. Those are "documents of difficulties, pleasures and pains of creating a nation". Many of the Turks did not look after their glass-plates and negatives as carefully as Pferschy nor had registered the precious details of who, when, where, why was on the frame. Therefore, his archive is more valuable for that reason too, and there is no doubt that Astrid did keep her promise to her father (he died 1984) "to keep his name alive in Turkey". She used the opening, I was told, to thank those who helped her do it.
( Astrid van Schell's view of a garden in Alanya
Being so very much at ease to express gratefulness, a manner developed by centuries of upbringing, Turks reward any, even the smallest, attention or acknowledgment with calm but decorate gratitude. Hanum (this is for Mrs.) Oya Eczacibasi(45) is the wife of the sixth richest man of Turkey. Being the boss of the Istanbul Modern, she presented Astrid with a fine plaque of appreciation. The Eczacibasi Group acquired earlier last year the well known Engers Keramik GmbH & Co in the German Rheinland Pfalz. The group has a 5% of the global ceramic market and can well afford running Istanbul Modern. The stewards of Turkish industry follow the example of Sabanci and tend to collect prestigious art institutions stuffing them hurriedly with rare, high-value items. (The great exhibition "Picasso in Istanbul" draws thousands people from all over the country to the elegant Sabanci museum by the Bosphorus while this show is of different stature). Bulent Eczacibasi (55) the owner of the Eczacibasi group (the name indicates the family to have been involved with kilns and ceramic production) was at a dinner party at the Musee d'Orsay in Paris when prime-minister Tayyup Erdogan visibly impressed with the place, joined them. The very first sentence (according rumors) Bulent uttered after the greeting was: "Why don't we have a place like this only one tenth the size". Allegedly, two days after their return the prime-minister called Bulent to ask what will he do related to the remark of "a tenth of Musee d'Orsay in Istanbul". Erdogan's first ever public office was a mayor (very successful) of istanbul. He won the election over the incumbent Nusrettin Sozan who opposed the Eczacibasi's effort to build a museum at the Golden Horn. Times had changed; Erdogan insisted to give an extra drive to his push for EU membership with a drive spearheaded by presentation of great Turkish cultural projects at home and abroad. One of the many results is Istanbul Modern.
(The happy days 35 years ago: my father Koco with Igor and Irina, Mare, in the back on a bench of his datcha on Vitosha by Sofia) There are some 4,000 objects of art in the Museum's permanent collection which dwarf the 170 photographs by Pferschy. It is strange that there are non authored by Jean Weinberg, the Romanian Jew for whom the Austrian worked the first five years. Weinberg's work is buried in the darkness of history after his emigration to Egypt banned of taking photographs of Ataturk because he kicked on purpose the photography tripod of Cemal Isiksel during the celebrations of the evening of the Republic Holiday at Ankara Palace in 1929.
After the Declaration of the Republic the first photographer of Ataturk was definitely Cemal Isiksel a son of Professor Hasan Fehmi Efendi the author of the fatwa against the Istanbul Government. He took his first photo of Ataturk in 1924 and staged 23 exhibitions of Ataturk photographs, one lasting 7 years in his apartment. He did practically nothing else and that made him the eternal photographer of Ataturk who had chosen him first among all photographers.
Isiksel has written this anecdote from a reception: "I was waiting for a convenient shot. Ataturk saw me. He turned to the history professors and teachers surrounding him and said that he got rid of all despotism in this country except the despotism of Cemal Isiksel. Then he asked me how I wanted to take the photograph, how and where to stand."

(Interviewing "old friends" Carl-Gustaf and Sophia of Sweden during their visit of Ohrid, Macedonia: myself to the far left, colleagues Tihomir Ilievski and Mira Jankovska flank the Queen to her right).
There are plenty of albums and books, reproduction which one may find around Istanbul in black-and-white documentary photography. Unfortunately for this post, that is not my cup of tea, therefore this is all that you get.

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