Why Are We Taking These Photos?

Anatomy of a Book

Akbank Sanat Beyoğlu, İstiklal Caddesi No. 8, Taksim, Beyoğlu

An open and vertical reading study shaped around the concepts and the photographs mentioned in photographer Halûk Çobanoğlu’s 2017 book, Why are We Taking These Photos?.

May 16, Thursday: Zen in the photography; the photographer’s encounter with the Zen philosophy and the Beat Generation; Werner Bischof, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Frank, Cem Ersavcı

May 17, Friday: Moment of truth; Henri Cartier Bresson’s journey through Zen Buddhism; an actors’s quiet but intimate diary, Richard Gere’s “Pilgrim” photo series

May 23, Thursday: Zen masters in photography history; Minor White, Ralph E. Meatyard, Marilyn Silverstone, Sergio Larrain

May 24, Friday: Photo of some other moment; Polaroid, The Russian avant-garde, Jacob Holdt and Luc Delahaye’s winter travels

Halûk Çobanoğlu

Born in 1957 at Kilimli, Zonguldak, Halûk Çobanoğlu studied at the department of Economy. He worked as an assistant at ICP, New York, assistant editor at Black Star News Agency, New York and photo editor at National Geographic, Turkey. He gives a lesson journalism, photograph and architecture at the various universities. He also made mentorship and editorship at the independent photography projects.

His works include Kuşbazlar (1997), New York Subway (2003), Arabesk (2007), and Bu Fotoğrafları Neden Çekiyoruz? (2017).