ZEYNEL YESILAY Zeynel Yesilay was born in Sanliurfa in 1950. He graduated in French Language and Literature from the Foreign Languages Department of Ankara Gazi University. His passion for photography began with the "Kodak" box camera he bought while still at Middle School, and which he still keeps with his archives. In 1970, he joined the Ministry of Tourism and Information. In this Ministry, were he worked until 1982, he gained the opportunity to travel through Turkey a number of times. He explored every region of Turkey with the French art photographers Roland and Sabrina Michaud and benefited from learning their techniques of photography and opinions about this art. In 1978, his photograph of the Ishak Pasha Palace in Dogubayazit was published by the Ministry in the form of a poster. His photographs have been used in many books and publications in Turkey and abroad. In 1975, as part of his job, he went to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, and the photographs he took there were used in this country's first posters and brochures. In 1981, Zeynel Ye?ilay took the photographs for the film "ATATÜRK", which for the first time in Turkey was realised as a joint Turkish, Belgian and French co-production. He has won prizes coming within the top ten in a number of national competitions he has entered. This art photographer has also held a number of mixed theme and portrait exhibitions. During the time when he worked for the Promotion Foundation of Turkey (TÜTAV) a lot of his photographs were published in the monthly "Image of Turkey" magazine, for which he acted as its photographic consultant. He also made multivision programmes. Working together with respected researchers and experts at the Anatolian Vernacular Arts Research Center (AVARC) which was set up with the Turkish handicrafts expert Güran Erbek as its president, Zeynel Yesilay has produced many photographs, multivision presentations, exhibitions and publications. He has also worked with Turkey's leading photographers such as Sami Güner and Sitki Firat. Zeynel Yesilay began to work in the Prime Ministry in 1993. He served as Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit’ private secretary. Now he is still working in Turkish Embassy of the Turkish Rebublic of North Cyprus. This artist, who is married to poet and songwriter Ilter Yesilay, has one son named Volkan. \