Director and photographer Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s landscape photographs will be on view at the Eye Filmmuseum in the Netherlands on January 17th with the exhibition Inner Landscapes. Featuring Ceylan’s award-winning films as well as his lesser-known landscape photographs, the exhibition draws attention with the artist’s skillful use of photographic perspective and composition, as well as his approach to universal issues from the perspective of the society to which he belongs.
Between Photography and Film
With this exhibition, Eye Filmmuseum sheds light on Nuri Bilge Ceylan, whose films have always presented a strong sense of photographic composition. In addition to his films, which have been screened and applauded in many parts of the world, the exhibition sheds light on his lesser-known photographic works, which constitute the starting point of his artistic career. For this purpose, the museum brings the artist’s photography and cinematography works, which weave film and photography together in his award-winning films, to the Netherlands for the first time. In the exhibition, the artist clearly exudes a filmic sensibility with his imposing photographs printed in large cinemascope format.
Films, Talks and Events
The film program accompanying the exhibition includes multiple screenings of Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s 35mm feature films, most of which are drawn from the Eye collection. Eye will also screen his films Uzak (2002) and Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011) in national cinemas through Eye distribution channels from January 17.
In a series of special ‘Eye on Art’ events, photographers and leading Turkish-Dutch producers will talk about Ceylan’s work and how it resonates with various Turkish communities. Some of the films that have always inspired Ceylan will also be screened in the exhibition.
Known for his literary style of cinematography that skillfully explores the human condition, the main characters of Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s productions are authentic individuals who continue their struggles, seek meaningful connections and learn to overcome the challenges of loneliness and communication. While his films touch on universality, they are also inextricably rooted in recent Turkish history and its myriad contrasts between city and countryside, religion and secularism, intellectual and working-class environments, rich and poor, individualism and collectivism.
In today’s black-and-white world of thought, the artist shows in subtle and humane ways how the past shapes the human character, through rich dialogues with existential ideas and permanent shots of interiors and vast landscapes. In this way, the artist also gives viewers space to reflect on the meaning of life.
Landscapes also play an important role in the artist’s visual narratives and are more than just backgrounds for Ceylan. Whether it is a vibrant Istanbul cityscape or a vast Anatolian plain, all landscapes reflect and influence the inner world of his characters.
