" Times have changed, life has changed... It was going to change, it had to change, and so it did... Because they never knew the former city and cannot imagine it, the new generation today thinks that this is Istanbul, that Istanbul was always like this.
When they look at an old photograph, they are astounded. ‘Where is that?’ they ask, because hardly anywhere still looks the same, if it still exists at all. [These photographs] are impressions left on my, of a world, lost or gone, in which I lived. "
Ara Güler
"Bugün Beyoğlunu düşününce, Ara Güler'in 1940lardaki Galatasaray Lisesi karşisında iki tramvayı gösteren siyah beyaz resmi gelir aklıma. Bu resim birden renklenir, insanlar adeta canlanır ve ben o ögrencilik yıllarıma geri dönerim. Mevsimlerden kıştır ve sulu sepken kar yağmaktadır................. "