Photographing Turkey's Cultural Heritage: Aydin Cetinbostanoglu By Liana Aghajanian, US Feb 1, 2012
An interview for Ianyan Magazine
"Born in 1954 in Izmir Turkey, photographer Aydin Cetinbostanoglu has been documenting Turkey's Gypsy, Alevi, Jewish, Christian Arab and Armenian communities for years, forming relationships, building trust and as a result gaining exclusive access to cultural intricacies that have for the most part remained allusive to outsiders. Hoping to break down cultural barriers, Cetinbostanoglu concentrated on documenting these various cultures for the last four decades, using photography as his tool to educate and expose Turkey to its cultural treasures. I shared both their happiness and sadness," he writes on his website. They looked at me laughing, smiling, worried and crying...I made many friends. How lucky Iam, am I not?" After exhibitions all over Turkey and in Italy, Germany and Yugoslavia as well as awards, Cetinbostanoglu spoke to ianyanmag about the art of photography, how he's formed relationships with his subjects, how he'd like to travel to Armenia and what it felt like to photograph the last Christian Armenian village in Turkey." by Liana Aghajanian