Photographer, Educator, and Traveler - A Veritable Polymath: Şinasi Barutçu
Refik Akyüz, Serdar Darendeliler
(Catalogue text for the exhibition 'Şinasi Barutçu: Tracing Photography', held at Milli Reasürans Art Gallery from 13 October to 25 December 2021.)
Milli Reasürans T.A.Ş, Istanbul, 2021, pp.27-43
There is a figure in Türkiye whose name is familiar, in one way or another, to almost everyone interested in photography: a person whose importance as an educator is no less significant than his work as a photographer, who pioneered many developments in the field, yet remains less well known than he deserves to be and retains a certain air of mystery. The information available about him is in fact quite limited and has circulated for years in different texts, many of which consist largely of a biographical account based on a text written by Barutçu himself. Much like the case of many photographers in Türkiye, there is no accessible and systematically organised archive of his work; only some prints held by friends are known to exist. Perhaps partly for this reason, despite a photography award bearing his name having been presented for many years, there has been almost no detailed analysis of his photographic career or the diversity of his approach to photography.
Of course, we are talking about Şinasi Barutçu. In this text, written on the occasion of 'Şinasi Barutçu: In Pursuit of Photography', we will attempt to bring together and reorganise this life story, which appears in different forms and in different places, and to create a source text incorporating whatever updates are possible. We will also remember his major contribution not so much to photographic production itself as to the dissemination of photography, the development of photography education curricula, and the training of photography educators, while taking a closer look at his work through the photographs that have survived and are accessible to us. All the while acknowledging that his photographs and artistic practice deserve a deeper, more comprehensive, and comparative analysis as the outcome of a longer research process.
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