Kurucularimizin yillar boyu topladiklari fotograflari Suna ve Inan Kirac Vakfina bagislamalariyla nüvesi olusan Suna ve Inan Kirac Vakfi Fotograf Koleksiyonu, Istanbul Arastirmalari Enstitüsünün acildigi 2007den bu yana cesitli bagis ve alimlarla gelistirilerek, 1850lerden 1960lara uzanan bir süreci kapsayan, Istanbul odakli yaklasik 130 bin kareye ulasti.
Yillardir süren tasnif ve tespit calismalari, bizi yeni projeler tasarlayabilecegimiz bir asamaya tasidi. Bu baglamda, tematik kurgulanmis cesitli fotograf gruplarinin yer alacagi Suna ve Inan Kirac Vakfi Fotograf Koleksiyonu Dizisini planladik.
Bu albüm-kitap dizinin ilk yayini Cumhuriyet Istanbulunun ilk anitsal dini yapisi Sisli Camiinin mimari seyrini anlatiyor. Sisli Camiini secmemizin nedenlerinden biri, kentin tarihinde, padisahin veya devlet ricalinin baniliginde degil halkin kolektif cabasiyla insa edilmis ilk cami olmasi. Bir diger nedeni, 1940larda ülkenin genelinde esen modernizm rüzgarinin sekillendirdigi mimari düsünce ve üretimin aksine, caminin klasik Osmanli üslubunu yansitmasi ve günümüze kadar insa edilen neo-Osmanli camileri icin bir model haline gelmesi. Ayrica, yayinladigimiz Sisli Camii fotograflarinin neredeyse tümünün, dönemin önde gelen stüdyolarindan Foto Sabah tarafindan cekilmis olmasi, caminin 1947-1949 arasindaki yapim sürecinin belli araliklarla belgelenmesinin özellikle hedeflendigini göstermesi bakimindan önemli. Dokümantasyon ve saklama aliskanliklarinin eksik oldugu, mimari üretimlerin nadiren arsivlendigi o yillarda böyle bir caba kayda deger.Umariz bu ve bundan sonra yayinlayacagimiz albüm-kitaplar, Istanbulun tarihsel kimligini cözümlemede arastirmacilara faydali olur.
The photographs collected by our founders through the years, which they have donated to Suna and Inan Kirac Foundation, constituted the kernel of the Foundations Photography Collection. Since the day the Istanbul Research Institute was opened in 2007, this collection grew with acquisitions and other donations, reaching approximately 130,000 photographs, with Istanbul as their main focus and covering a period from the 1850s to the 1960s.
Years of classification and identification have finally brought us to the point of being able to create new projects. As a result, we have planned the Suna and Inan Kirac Photography Collection Series, which will consist of thematically structured groups of photographs.
This album-book is the first publication in this series, discussing the architectural journey of Sisli Mosque, the first monumental religious building of Republican Istanbul. One of the reasons we have chosen Sisli Mosque is that this is the first mosque in the citys history that was built not under the aegis of the sultan or statesmen but through the collective effort of the people. Another reason is that Sisli Mosque, unlike the architectural thought and production of the 1940s, which was shaped throughout the country by winds of modernism, reflected the classical Ottoman style and has been accepted as a stylistic example, providing a prototype for neo-Ottoman mosques built in its wake. In addition, the photographs of the mosque we publish here have almost exclusively been taken by Foto Sabah, one of the leading studios of the period, which indicates that the process of the mosques construction between 1947 and 1949 was deliberately documented at regular intervals. In those years when documentation and preservation was not habitual and architectural work was seldom archived, such an effort is noteworthy. We hope that this title and the album-books we will publish will help researchers in analyzing Istanbuls historical identity.
