A city’s memory
The Foto Rıdvan Photography Collection brings together studio photographs taken by Rıdvan Kırmacı, one of Ankara’s early photographers, from the 1930s through the 1970s.
The collection includes approximately 30,000 acetate negatives, along with glass negatives and photographic prints. Much of the archive remains preserved in its original boxes, offering a remarkable visual record of Ankara’s families, children, young people, athletes, public officials and many other segments of society over several decades.
Thousands of portraits originally taken as personal keepsakes have today become part of a much larger urban memory of Ankara.
Who came, who passed through
Thousands of Ankara residents from different generations stood before Foto Rıdvan’s camera.
Brides and grooms, families, children, students, soldiers, civil servants, public officials, businesspeople, athletes and members of various associations were photographed in the same studio. Images once made for family albums gradually became visual records of Ankara’s changing social life.
Youth and sports photography also hold an important place in the collection. Through Foto Rıdvan’s connections with Çankaya Club and Gençlerbirliği, the archive contains significant images documenting Ankara’s sporting life of the period.
From the history of photography in Ankara
Foto Rıdvan, whose real name was Rıdvan Kırmacı, was one of the early figures of photography in Ankara.
Trained by Çulluzade Mustafa Adil Bey, Kırmacı was also involved in the founding activities of the Ankara Photographers’ Association. He appears in a group photograph published in the 1929 newspaper Hakimiyet-i Milliye in connection with the association’s inauguration.
Following his early years in Samanpazarı and Anafartalar, he moved his studio to Çocuk Sarayı Street in 1938. For many years, the studio continued to photograph successive generations of Ankara residents from the same address.
30,000 negatives, decades of memory
The value of the collection lies not only in the number of photographs it contains, but also in the remarkable physical integrity of the archive.
Approximately 30,000 negatives remain in their original boxes, accompanied by glass negatives, photographic prints and archival notes.
When the boxes, notes, prints and negatives are considered together, the collection becomes more than a selection of photographs. It forms a comprehensive archive that makes it possible to trace both the working practices of a photography studio and Ankara’s changing social fabric.
From personal memories to urban memory
When these photographs were first taken, they were meant for family albums, to be sent to a friend or simply to preserve a particular moment in someone’s life.
Today, those same images carry another layer of meaning.
Hairstyles, clothing, uniforms, family structures, childhood, and the way people presented themselves before the camera make it possible to read decades of social change in Ankara through small details.
The Foto Rıdvan Photography Collection transforms thousands of personal memories into a broad portrait of Ankara.
Ankara’s Witnesses
Today, the Foto Rıdvan Photography Collection offers a valuable resource for exhibitions, publications, documentaries, digital archives, oral history, urban memory and cultural heritage projects.
For researchers, institutions and curators, the collection is a living archive from which new stories about Ankara’s social and cultural history can emerge.
Project / Content Type: Photography Collection
Status: Project Development
Field: Culture / Cultural Heritage
Period: 1930–1970
Archive: Approximately 30,000 negatives
