Cinemascope Turkey by Nuri Bilge Ceylan

ISTANBUL

Internationally acclaimed filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan, whose 2014 film “Kış Uykusu” (Winter Sleep) won the Palme d’Or at the 67th Cannes Film Festival, has published a book of his photography titled “Cinemascope Turkey,” including photos taken across the country over the past 10 years. 

Cinemascope Turkey begins with a vivid excerpt from the screenplay to Ceylan’s “Kasaba” (Small Town). With minimal accompanying text, the book’s multi-part story is told through photographs alone.

Ceylan has been passionate about photography since his high school years. After a brief hiatus of about a decade after university, he rediscovered this passion while traveling around Turkey in search of locations for his film “İklimler” (Climates). 

Since then he has devoted his time to pursuing both cinema and photography with equal passion, and the striking results are presented in this book.

Cinemascope Turkey contains 100 panoramic photos taken by Ceylan in various regions of the country from 2003 onwards. Book-lovers, connoisseurs of photography, and cinephiles will all enjoy its breathtaking prints laid out in dramatic fashion.  

The book is both an authentic reflection of Ceylan’s cinematographic world and an incomparable window – both thoughtful and aesthetically compelling – onto ordinary life in Turkey. With a panoramic layout aiming to command the reader’s attention, it can be said to amount to a unique, experimental synthesis of photography and cinema. 
 

Pursuing both cinema and photography 

Born in Istanbul in 1959, Ceylan graduated from the Department of Electrical Engineering at Boğaziçi University and he studied cinema at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University for two years. 

After a short film entitled “Koza” (Cocoon) in 1995, his “Small Town” and “Mayıs Sıkıntısı” (Clouds of May) were screened at the Berlin Film Festival. 

With his subsequent films “Uzak” (Distant), Climates, “Üç Maymun” (Three Monkeys) and “Bir Zamanlar Anadolu’da” (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia), he won the Grand Jury Prize (twice), Best Director, Best Actor and the FIPRESCI Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. 

His latest film “Winter Sleep” (2014) received the Palme d’Or, the highest prize awarded at the festival.