| Art Profile |
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Sıtkı Fırat was born in Erzincan. He finished his primary, middle, and teacher’s education school in Istanbul. In 1947, he taught at Kemaliye Başpınar primary school. In the next year, he graduated from the Gazi Education Institute. While studying, he explored photography and took classes from Şinasi Barutçu between 1948 and 1949. Fırat instructed at Teacher’s school in Ankara and Diyarbakır in photography for a long time. Later, he worked as a lecturer at Gazi University. After working as a teacher for 26 years, he retired in 1977. Fırat continued working as a professional photographer and pioneered the dissemination of color photography printing services in Turkey. In 1980, he founded Fırat Color Photography Laboratory in Ankara.
Fırat has traveled to many places in Turkey and taken numerous photographs of what he has seen. His work has been published in many magazines, calendars, brochures and posters of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism. He has also traveled to more than 30 countries and taken many photographs as well. He has had over 100 photograph exhibitions in Turkey and abroad. He has received many awards including “service to the Turkish World” award by TÜRKSAV, “veteran artist of the year” award at the FİYAP Interkamera Fair in 2001, and “the Photography Artist of the Year” by the Art Institution. He was awarded an achievement plaque by the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism on the occasion of his 55th photography year exhibition. After having his exhibition in China in 1989, Fırat was invited to China 5 times to have exhibitions. He was one of 14 photographers who were invited from around the world to take photographs for Chinese prestige book.
Fırat has published several books such as “Fotoğrafcılık” (1976), “Selçuklu Sanat”, “Güneşin Doğuduğu Yer Türkiye”, “Yurttan ve Dünyadan Yansımalar”, and “Saklı Cennet Kemaliye”. His book “Türkiye’den Renkler ve Şahaneler” was published by the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism on the occasion of his 60th photography year. Fırat is a member of TÜTAV, and honorary member of AFSAD. He is one of the founding honorary members of the Association of Photographic Art.
Reference: sitkifirat.com, ilef.ankara.edu.tr, fotograf.net, Fotoğrafımızda Bugün 2011 (Istanbul: Istanbul Photography Museum, 2011), 292-293.
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