İsmet Üstekin

İsmet Üstekin — Biography

İsmet Üstekin is an artist who does not fit a single category: he acted on stage and in front of the camera, made photography his profession and later turned to painting. While theatre and television brought him to a wide audience, the technique he devised, which he calls "Fotores", gave him a separate place in the visual arts.

The first phase of his career was the theatre. After studying at the LCC Language and Culture Center theatre school from 1968 to 1971, he performed with many companies from 1971 onward, among them the Dormen Theatre, the Ali Poyrazoğlu Theatre, the Gülriz Sururi-Engin Cezzar Theatre, the Devekuşu Cabaret Theatre, the Şan Theatre, the Bakırköy Municipal Theatres and Tiyatro İstanbul. He moved in front of the camera after 1973 and appeared in more than thirty productions, among them Üç Yaman Bakire (1975), Sipsevdi (1977), Belene (1987), Suyun Öte Yanı (1991), Tatlı Kaçıklar (1996), Ihlamurlar Altında (2005), Sihirli Annem (2005), Sır Gibi (2007) and Dinle Neyden (2008); Şenlikname: Bir İstanbul Masalı (2010) is the latest film role listed for him.

Üstekin turned his photography into a profession in 1975 and from 1982 painted in oils and pastels, holding fourteen solo exhibitions and taking part in group shows. He gave the name "Fotores" to his method of turning his own photographs into paintings and held the first Fotores exhibition at Galeri Arkeopera in Istanbul. In 1968 he married the actress Sevil Barutçu, and the marriage lasted until 1984.