Photographer

May 2 - 25, 2025

Presenting a selection that invites reflection on the boundaries of seeing, recording, and interpreting, Photographer invites the viewer to question the nature of the gaze, the perception of reality, and the memory of the image.

As part of the program prepared in parallel with the Samih Rifat: “Much Is to Be Done” exhibition, documentaries about master photographers Sebastião Salgado, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Josef Koudelka, and Bill Cunningham — featured in Rifat’s photography book Akla Kara Arası (Between Black and White) — will be showcased, alongside two iconic fictional films that have left a lasting mark on cinema history. 

Among the films to be screened at the Pera Museum Auditorium are: The Salt of the Earth, which traces Salgado’s journey from human tragedies to the natural world; Alfred Hitchcock’s classic Rear Window, where a photographer becomes entangled in a mystery; Michelangelo Antonioni’s masterpiece Blow-Up, centered around the trail of a randomly taken photograph; Koudelka: Crossing the Same River, accompanying legendary photographer Josef Koudelka’s explorations among the ancient ruins of the Mediterranean; and Bill Cunningham New York, focusing on the legendary New York fashion photographer.

Additionally, Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Impassioned Eye, focusing on Cartier-Bresson’s life and photographic vision, will be available for online screening on the Pera Museum’s website.

Film screenings within this program are accessible with a discounted museum entrance ticket. Tickets can be purchased from Biletix or the reception of Pera Museum. Per legal regulations, all screenings are restricted to persons over 18 years of age unless stated otherwise.

May 2

19:00 Blow-Up

May 3

15:00 Rear Window

May 4

15:00 Koudelka: Crossing the Same River

May 7

19:00 Bill Cunningham New York

May 9

19:00 Rear Window

May 10

15:00 The Salt of the Earth

May 11

15:00 Blow-Up

May 23

19:00 The Salt of the Earth

May 24

15:00 Koudelka: Crossing the Same River

May 25

17:30 Bill Cunningham New York

The Salt of the Earth

The Salt of the Earth

Rear Window

Rear Window

Blow-Up

Blow-Up

Koudelka: Crossing the Same River

Koudelka: Crossing the Same River

Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Impassioned Eye <br> Online Screening

Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Impassioned Eye
Online Screening

Bill Cunningham New York

Bill Cunningham New York

Cameria (Mihrimah Sultan)

Cameria (Mihrimah Sultan)

Based on similar examples by the European painters in various collections, this work is one of the portraits of Mihrimah Sultan, who was depicted rather often in the 16th century.

The Ottoman Way of Serving Coffee

The Ottoman Way of Serving Coffee

Coffee was served with much splendor at the harems of the Ottoman palace and mansions. First, sweets (usually jam) was served on silverware, followed by coffee serving. The coffee jug would be placed in a sitil (brazier), which had three chains on its sides for carrying, had cinders in the middle, and was made of tombac, silver or brass. The sitil had a satin or silk cover embroidered with silver thread, tinsel, sequin or even pearls and diamonds.

A Photographer’s Biography Pascal Sebah

A Photographer’s Biography Pascal Sebah

Following the opening of his studio, “El Chark Societe Photographic,” on Beyoğlu’s Postacılar Caddesi in 1857, the Levantine-descent Pascal Sébah moves to yet another studio next to the Russian Embassy in 1860 with a Frenchman named A. Laroche, who, apart from having worked in Paris previously, is also quite familiar with photographic techniques.