Arif Aşçı

Arif Aşçı — Biography

Arif Aşçı is a Turkish photographer known for his Silk Road and Istanbul projects. Documenting the Silk Road by camel caravan from China to Türkiye, and photographing Istanbul for years with a panoramic camera, are the two main strands of his work. He trained as a painter and is an art historian; he has also acted in two films by Nuri Bilge Ceylan.

He studied painting at the Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts, graduated in 1982 and worked as an assistant at the same school between 1984 and 1986. In 1986 he left that post and set out across Asia. During the journey, which lasted until 1989, he became interested in photography, and on his return he made a twelve-part television documentary, Turquoise. From 1996, with a team of four, he spent eighteen months photographing the historic Silk Road route from China to Türkiye on camelback; the work became the 1998 book The Last Caravan On The Silk Road.

The books Bahtabakan (2000) and Many Colors, One City (2005) were published by Kaleseramik Kültür Yayınları. Between 2003 and 2007 he photographed Istanbul with a 6x17 panoramic camera. His photographs have been exhibited in Türkiye and abroad and have appeared in various media. In cinema he appeared in Ceylan's Uzak (2002) and İklimler (2006), playing a character named Arif in the latter. He was born in Adana.