Manuel Çıtak: Istanbul Modern Opens a 40-Year Photo Archive
The Photography Gallery shows about 100 works by the late photographer until 23 May 2027.
Istanbul Modern has opened “Manuel Çıtak: Kendine Ait Bir Ada” (“An Island of One’s Own”), a large exhibition built from more than 40 years of work by the Turkish photographer. Çıtak died in 2023. The show is the first major look at his archive since then, and it runs until 23 May 2027.
It fills the museum’s Photography Gallery and its foyer. According to İndigo Dergisi, it has eight sections and brings together about 100 photographs, printed ephemera and one video.
What the Manuel Çıtak exhibition at Istanbul Modern contains
The works start in the 1980s and follow Çıtak’s gaze across city streets, coastlines and Anatolia. The sections include black-and-white coastal images, city views, portraits and panoramic work. The last section presents his series “islomania,” which he also showed at Depo İstanbul in 2022.
Demet Yıldız Dinçer, head of the museum’s photography department, curated the show. A catalogue in Turkish and English accompanies it, with texts by Orhan Cem Çetin, Şebnem İşigüzel and Dinçer. A talk with İşigüzel and Çetin is planned for 11 November 2026, with Dinçer moderating.
A photographer who stayed behind the camera
In her Hürriyet interview, the writer Şebnem İşigüzel, Çıtak’s wife, described him as an artist who avoided self-promotion. She said he cared about what he made, not about how it would be received. In her view, his pictures feel as though no photographer stood behind them.
İşigüzel wrote and narrated the exhibition’s audio tour. She also said the archive is much larger than the show. “This exhibition is almost a crumb,” she said, and added that the family hopes to bring more of his work to the public later.
Tamar Çıtak, the photographer’s daughter, also contributes a video work called “Görmenin Hatırası” (“Memory of Seeing”). It uses family footage, and the museum placed it inside a viewfinder-style frame. She said the project let her see the world through her father’s eyes.
Çıtak’s place in Turkish photography
Çıtak was born in Malatya in 1962 and grew up in Istanbul. He studied graphic design at the Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts, where he first met photography. His 1990 photo essay on Istanbul’s Armenian community brought him wider attention.
He later worked for Cornucopia, Skylife and National Geographic. His photographs of Kars appeared on foreign-language covers of Orhan Pamuk’s novel Kar (Snow). He also donated works to Istanbul Modern’s collection in 2004, so this show continues a relationship that began in the museum’s early years.
Visitors can see the exhibition at the Photography Gallery of Istanbul Modern in Beyoğlu until 23 May 2027. The exhibition has several formats for visitors: the catalogue, the audio tour and the 11 November talk.
Source: Hürriyet, İndigo Dergisi
Featured image: İndigo Dergisi
