Journal of Medeniyet Art

Abstract

The study focuses on the development of photography in Turkey in the 1970s, a period of social, economic, and political instability, when the desire for social change and organization increased, leftist and rightist ideologies became more prominent, as well as economic crisis, ideological conflicts, violence and political instability. In order to draw the historical framework, archival research was conducted, newspapers and photography magazines from the 70s were scanned, texts written about photography were examined and analyzed with the descriptive analysis method. At the end of this analysis, it was seen that the photography culture of that period overlapped with the economic, political, social, cultural, and artistic vision of the country. The themes of the research identified as a result of the archive search were organization, amateurism, professionalization of photography as a profession, photography publications, economic crisis, socialist realism, new trends in photography, and important developments. Looking at the photography of the 1970s, it is seen that photography turned into a tool of the working class and its struggle. With the trainings provided through associations, the number of people taking photographs increased and photography amateurs emerged. Another important feature of these years in terms of photography was the development of photographers who earned money from photography and practiced it as a profession. One of the reasons for this is the organization and determination of professional photographers. Another result of the study is that with the establishment of photography associations and the appearance of photography magazines on the shelves, the ground was prepared for the creation of not only the social documentary approach but also different photographic styles.