Research center opens with a look at Anatolia

Koç University’s Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations makes its official opening with a photography exhibition of the late chronicler of Anatolia, Josephine Powell. The center aims to focus on the Anatolia

Josephine Powell was one of the most prominent documenters of Turkey’s recent history and its transformation after the establishment of the republic in early 20th century. Having visited Turkey for the first time in 1955 to photograph Byzantine mosaics, she became a regular traveler in Turkey, photographically and academically documenting nomadic life. She was both a collector of Anatolian artifacts like flat-woven textiles, kilims and sacks, as well as a photographer of ethnography.

Until her death in 2007, Powell documented Anatolia and its diverse ways of life in a collection of 30,000 photographs. Three months before her death, she left the entire collection to the Vehbi Koç Foundation. The photos have been digitized and cataloged by Koç University’s Suna Kıraç Foundation.

Now, a selection of these photographs, taken over a span of two decades, is ready for art and culture aficionados as part of an opening exhibition.

Click here for full article (Hürriyet Daily News)