Ara Güler’s photographic report on Aphrodisias was an important milestone in his career as a photo-journalist. First published in The Architectural Review in 1961, it subsequently appeared in a number of leading international magazines. Ara Güler’s first photographs of the village of Geyre – now officially recognised by the Turkish government as the ‘Aphrodisias Archaeological Site’ – were taken in 1958. Subsequently (from the 1960s onwards), he made repeated visits to Geyre and Aphrodisias during which he documented the site’s transition from being an ordinary settlement to its inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Among the items on view at the exhibition are darkroom prints, copies of international periodicals containing accounts of Ara Güler’s discovery of Aphrodisias and his photographs of it, his correspondence with agencies, his cameras, and mementos of the preparation of his book Aphrodisias Çığlığı (‘Call of Aphrodisias’) – plus a mock-up of this book, various other objects, his notes and some ephemera.