By Heidi Trautmann

Kadir Kaba presented us his new book on “The Origins of Turkish Cypriot Photography in Englishon November 17 at the beautifully renovated Mills in Kaymakli, a charming suburb of Nicosia South accompanied by an exhibition of approximately 100 photos contained therein. The mayor Mrs Eleni Mavrou opened the event expressing that the research work Kadir Kaba had done on “our common past” is most important.

These plates, a most precious treasure from often individual family archives and private collections, or Kadir Kaba’s own archive, are the basis on which he describes the first beginnings of Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot photography, first steps with the most simple equipment, procedures we can hardly visualize today, but which show the inventiveness of passionate first photographers.

Kadir Kaba has done intensive research work on the first twelve photographers starting with Ahmet Sevki (born in Kyrenia in 1874) and his wife Ismet (born in Nicosia in 1884) to Mehmet Muhyi Said (born in Kyrenia in 1920), showing the development of understanding of composition and presentation of the object in front of the camera.

Kadir Kaba was born in Mora, Nicosia in 1947. He graduated from ITIA Ankara as accountant in 1971. In 1975 he took up photography as journalist in London and studied photography at Paddington College, School of Photography in London from 1978 -1981.

Over 30 years he has been working as professional photographer in London and Cyprus, and as gallery owner, curator, researcher and instructor in universities and private colleges.

He wrote articles on his research work of past and present developments in photography and undertook many efforts to promote the art and support modern approaches in the field of art photography. His book on the very first Turkish photographer, Ahmet and Ismet Şevki,  in English and Greek came out in 2007.

The book – ISBN 978-9963-9159-3-4 is published by the Turkish Cypriot Artist and Writers Union with a grant from the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Cyprus. The editor and curator is Ümit Inatçi

The Turkish version of the present book will be available soon and launched separately.

The exhibition will still be open until Nov 23 – see under Cyprus Cultural Events.