Aytekin Çakmakçı was born in Trabzon in 1949. He started at a very young age as a set photographer and camera assistant and turned into a master cinematographer. Starting from Acı / Pain in 1984 he worked in 75 cinema and TV productions. Among these Kan / Blood, Yılanların Öcü / Revenge of the Snakes, Güneşe Köprü / Bridge to the Sun, Prenses / Princess, Sen Türkülerini Söyle / Sing a Song, Çağdaş Bir Köle / A Modern Slave, Bir Avuç Gökyüzü / A Handful of Sky, Biri ve Diğerleri / One and the Others, Muhsin Bey, İpekçe, Arabesk / Arabesque, Düttürü Dünya / The Queer World from the 80’s and Kurt Kanunu / The Wolf Law, Uzlaşma / The Consensus, Cazibe Hanımın Gündüz Düşleri / Daydreams of Miss Cazibe, Yumuşak Ten / Soft Skin, Işıklar Sönmesin / Let There Be Light, Mum Kokulu Kadınlar / Candle Scented Women, Avrupalı / European from the 90’s are especially notable.

Çakmakçı was part of many successful films by a great variety of directors such as Şerif Gören, Tunç Başaran, Ertem Eğilmez, Orhan Aksoy, Zeki Ökten, Bilge Olgaç, Erdoğan Tokatlı, Ersin Pertan, İrfan Tözüm, Sinan Çetin, Reis Çelik, and Ümit Elçi. He is known as an accomplished artist who is a master of his craft from theory to practice. That is why his lectures at many universities and institutions such as Anadolu, Marmara, Mimar Sinan, 9 Eylül, Istanbul Tech universities, and IFSAK are an integral part of his life.

He received a Golden Orange as the best director of cinematography at Antalya in 1986 for his work in Revenge of the Snakes and a Golden Cocoon at Adana in 1996 for Candle Scented Women and Let There be Light. His first work for TV came in 1987 with Yalnız Efe and continued with Yaprak Dökümü / Leaf Cast. He intensified his TV work throughout the 2000s. He seems to be returning to cinema in recent years. He opened his first personal exhibition of photographs in 1999 and continues to be an ardent photographer.
– Atilla Dorsay