By Heidi Trautmann
From 328 entries by 60 artists 60 photos by 35 artists were chosen for the exhibition at the Atatürk Cultural Centre opened on 22 December by the President Derviş Eroğlu and the Director of the Cultural Department of the Ministry of Tourism, Environment and Culture Derviş Beyit.
The Works were selected by two photographers from Turkey: Oktay Çolak, Çetin Ergand and by the TRNC photographer Hasan Hüseyin.
The winners were Altay Sayıl, Mehmetali Karahasan and Mustafa Müezzinoglu.
The other participants who were chosen worthy of display in the exhibition were:
Mehmet Bülent Türkelman(1), Nevzat Gökçe(2), Nafia Akdeniz(3), Özhan Özatay(2), Hasan Bitirim(1), Buket Özatay(1), Mehmet Ali Karahasan(2), Nilüfer İnandım(1), Dürdane Parlak(2), Mustafa Evirgen(3), Saadettin Arslan(1), Cemal Okur(1), Burçin Aybars(2), Altay Sayıl(2), Gökhan Gökberk(2), Tevfik Ulual(1), Feridun Karakartal(1), Musa Alper Eroğlu(3), Devrim Yücel Besim(1), Mehmet Gökyiğit(1), Nurperi Özgener(1), Giray Karahasan(3), Mustafa Müezzinoğlu(4), Bahire Eminsel(1), Hasan Bağlar(2), Lisani Otağ(3), Köksal Ateş(1), M. Tevfik İleri(1), Cüneyt Bayram(3), Serkan Gül(1), Mustafa Tuğcan(1), Hakan Kaşif(1), Ahmet Erhan(1), Hakan Berkay(1), Dolgun Dalgıçoğlu(3).
A wide spectre of themes were covered by the most talented 35 photographers, many of them professional photographers, widely known, and participants in other competitions. Bedia Kale from the Cultural Department and I concluded that the quality of photos were getting better with each year of competition. There were still images of wonders of nature and portraits of old people which offers so many facets of stories untold – a young student once told me: an old face is a beautiful landscape.
The exhibition is open until 5 January; viewing times at Office hours, usually from my experience, they close early in the afternoon around 14.30, so you better go there in the mornings to be on the safe side.
The photo next to the title is by Tevfik Ulual. The other photos I have included here are only a part of the exhibited works, those without names are one of several entries by one artist but are not included in the catalogue so I cannot put a name to it. There were so many more I would like to show you but that would be too many and I suggest you go yourself!