Guler's Story

Güler Ugur was born in Turkey to Syrian parents and raised in a Turkish ghetto in Germany. She studied photography in Dortmund under Jurgen Wassmuth and ran away to New York soon after turning 21, despite having already commenced her career as a fashion photographer in Germany. She fell in love with the NYC and quickly became an assistant to Eli Reed of Magnum Photos. In the midst of the riots in Crown Heights, urged by Reed, she visited Brooklyn for the first time, and stumbled upon the heartbreaking funeral of Gavin Cato. Guler was suddenly forced to learn about race – something, despite her background, she didn’t consider heavily. “I didn’t think in black and white. I didn’t think in color. I learned this way of thinking in America.” She also learned about herself and her relationship to her subjects, as art. In Crown Heights, she found herself taking close ups of a grieving mother. She talked about it with Reed afterwards, and came to the realization ‘when you photograph a person, you always have to ask yourself what you are giving back to that person when you take the picture.’

After establishing herself as a photographer in NYC with shows at Stephen Gang Gallery, Kavehaz Gallery, and more, further travels brought her to Brazil, Peru, Colombia, India, Israel, Portugal, France, and several other countries around the globe. Her last exhibition, Ephemeral Emotion displayed many women and children from these distant places. “I grew up in a Turkish culture where woman and children were my whole world” said Guler, “I always connect with them.” She kept many children’s drawings in frames in her apartment - her playful nature and crackling energy was like a magnet for people, and especially children “It’s
about winning the child’s heart,” she said, regarding
photographing kids, “and in the end I always do.” 

Guler's photography business was of her own creation, and she felt extremely blessed to be able to make a living in New York through her art. She said "this company is an accidental byproduct of my constant desire to search for beauty." She had another photography exhibition planned for 2015, but unfortunately it didn't happen with her present -

Guler’s life ended tragically on New Year’s Eve, 2014. She was walking across 113th Street to attend the service at St. John the Divine when she was struck by a speeding, unlicensed driver. After a year and a half in the court system, Guler’s friends, some who attended every single hearing, finally received justice on October 17, 2016. The driver was sentenced to 1-3 years jail time, when most hit & run drivers who are caught afterwards get off with no charges, or at most a slap on the wrist. The laws are changing, because of Guler, because of all the people she touched during her life. A man who met her briefly during a hike in upstate NY spoke at her memorial, about how much she changed him in that one day. Another photographer who took her picture jumping in the air after completing the polar bear swim in Brighton Beach wrote an article about her...the friends she had for days and for decades, will forever be altered by knowing her. She was the color in every adventure.