www.afsad.org.tr

Ankara Photographers Association (AFSAD) is a non-governmental organization which has been founded in 1977 with the aim of gathering the amateur and professional photographers to give rise to the development of photography as an art in Turkey.

Within its 23 years of history, AFSAD has managed to document most of the changes not only in the development of Turkish photography, but also in the economic, social, politic and natural views of Turkey during this period. Today, AFSAD is a very rich source of photographs which reflect these changes with more over 6000 photographs in its archives.

Among most important activities of AFSAD is the organization of exhibitions and slide shows on the both national and international basis. It organizes a national photograph exhibition annually for 16 years to make the photographers focus on a specific subject which reflect the situation of Turkey and Turkish photography in that year.

By considering photography as a universal language of truth, AFSAD has been trying to develop relations with foreign countries it has organized several exhibitions and slide shows with the aim of bringing different cultures together to know one another for the creation of a peaceful world using the common language of photography.

Since 1977, AFSAD has introduced more than 30 publications including " Basic Photography Lecture Notes" which is being used as a reference in education programs of more than twenty photograph societies around Turkey, and "FOTOGRAF"; the longest published magazine on photography in Turkish.

Within the society, there are weekly slide shows and talks about not only photography but also about other arts to enhance the development of the members. Basic and advanced photographic seminars are given to the ones who are not needed to be members of the society but one interested about photography.

Apart from these AFSAD also tries to gather other photograph societies around Turkey under the hat of a national federation. To the this, a study unit is formed which composed of representatives of each society and a general secretary. The aim of this unit is to use common language in the formation of the photography federation. This unit is an important step because it is hard to set up such a federation with personal or single-sided efforts due to the governmental regulations.

Although AFSAD is not composed of all the young people, the target group of the society is to take in and educate is the young. In order to attract young people, special educational seminars and photographic trips are organized for the students at the weekend and in the holidays. Also young members are encouraged to take responsibility in the activities and at all levels of management in the society.