Urban Memory of Izmir in the Photograph Collection of Cengiz Onaran
Project no. 21589 · Status: Kapanmış (Yayın bekleniyor) · 2020
Summary
<p>Memory is about keeping the past and reproducing it in the present, this short phrase actually offers a descriptive quality for photography. Photography, which carries the past to the present as a communication tool, is seen as one of the most frequently used methods in recent memory or social memory studies. From the middle of the 19th century, in addition to memory and social memory studies, photography has been used in research on urban memory, which is the subject of our project.</p><p>Urban memory studies briefly address the relationship that is thought to have formed with the historical and social environment of the place or space where the individual lives, based on his/her experiences. In this project, it is aimed to study the Izmir postcards and photographs collection, which was collected by Master Architect Cengiz Onaran since her childhood, in the context of urban memory studies. The representation of the changing and transforming identity of İzmir, which has become famous as a trade and port city that connects Anatolia to European markets, is examined in the photographs since the 1840s. This collection consists of places where physical urban changes have taken place such as Kordon, Alsancak, Gümrük, Konak, Karşıyaka, Güzelyalı, as well as places, districts and spaces where we can reach their representations in photographs, such as Frenk Mahallesi and Sarı Kışla, which do not exist today.</p><p>The sample of the project consists of rare images in the collection of photographs and postcards taken by travelers, painters, photographers of the period or Cengiz Onaran's 3 generation family, acquaintances and himself in order to comprehensively document the settlements of Izmir. Among these images, 1,108 postcards and photographs of the center of Izmir and the surrounding region were selected, and these photographs were discussed with Cengiz Onaran through a semi-structured interview method within the scope of oral history studies. A historical and autobiographical perspective is presented to the existing urban memory of İzmir regarding its distant past.</p>