Gülnur Sözmen

Gülnur Sözmen was born in Istanbul in 1955. Between 1972–1976, she studied graphic design and photography at the Istanbul State School of Applied Fine Arts. Upon graduation, she held her first solo exhibition and began working in advertising agencies as a graphic designer and staff photographer. From 1982 to 1996, she taught Visual Communication at the Department of Photography at Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts. In 1994, she was invited as a guest artist to the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, USA. 

Since the 1970s, Sözmen’s practice has developed across both documentary and industrial photography. In 1978, she established her own studio and has worked independently since then. She was among the founders of FOTOS Fine Art Photographers Association and the Professional Advertising Photographers Association (PTFD), two of the first professional photography organizations in Türkiye, and served in managerial roles in both. From the 1980s onward, she focused extensively on industrial photography, documenting large-scale facilities, production sites, and industrial structures in Türkiye and abroad, while also producing corporate projects and promotional films. The extensive archive she created during this period constitutes a long-term visual record of manufacturing culture and industrial transformation, contributing to her international recognition. 

Sözmen’s work addresses social and geographical transformations, exploring the relationship between production, labor, and space across different regions. In “Black City,” she documented Azerbaijani oil fields and the oil islands of the Caspian Sea; in “Blood of Fire,” steel mills and workers; and in “Aegean and Beyond: Olive,” olive production and its role in the regional economy. In her project “Towards Radiant Mornings,” she documented post-war Afghanistan. Since her first solo exhibition in 1976, she has held eight solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group exhibitions. 

In recent years, her practice has been shaped by a traveler’s perspective. Since 2012, she has pursued corporate and commercial photography projects based in Türkiye, Canada, and Qatar. 

In 2026, Gülnur Sözmen donated her complete analog archive to BEVFAM.