Bahar Çınarlı was born in Ankara Türkiye in 1962. She pursued a career successfully in science and became a Medical Doctor. After moving to Vancouver, Canada in 1988, she studied at UBC and was awarded the M.Sc. and CCFP degrees. She had several publications in distinguished scientific journals such as Nature Biotechnology. After achieving accreditation as a Canadian Medical Doctor, Bahar has practiced medicine in Vancouver for 2 1/2 decades. Bahar was exposed to literature, visual and performance arts from very early ages by, among notable others, her father Mehmet Çınarlı, poet, editor of a highly esteemed literary journal, and a Constitutional Court Judge in Türkiye.

Bahar has always pursued her interest in the arts, including writing, photography, painting, film-making and theatre. Artistic expression has been an interest from childhood. At 10 years of age, Bahar staged plays recruiting neighborhood children to play various roles. During her high-school years, she won poetry and painting competitions. While in Medical School, Bahar created a good number of oil paintings and pursued acting roles in community theatre.

In 1991, during her graduate studies at UBC, Bahar held her first solo photography exhibition at a -now closed- art gallery in downtown Vancouver. In 2002 Bahar was selected to participate in a group exhibition at the prestigious Romanov Gallery in downtown Vancouver.

In 2006 she became the Vancouver correspondent for the trilingual newspaper Notre Anatolie, published in Montreal, and covered a plethora of events with her articles and photographs.

In 2007 she released her documentary film “The Land of Exodus and Beauty” – a film about the Greek -Turkish population exchange. The film was screened at the Pacific Cinematheque. It was also selected as a finalist in Montreal Turkish Film Festival, and later screened in Montreal. Several universities throughout the U.S.A. and Canada have acquired the film and made it available to their patrons.

In 2007, Bahar was one of the organizers and participants of the celebrated “Turkish Poetry Readings with Live Music Day” event in Vancouver. The video recording of the event is available on the internet.

In 2009 she was elected “Journalist of the year” by the Notre Anatolie newspaper. She later became a columnist at the same newspaper, writing about various topics. In 2020 the paper created the “Through-Bahar’s-Lens” section, where she published numerous photographic artwork.

Two of Bahar’s artistic short films can be found at her Vimeo site “Independent Documentaries”, respectively, “Call of the Sea” and “La Mer”.

In 2023 Bahar participated in the “Women’s Art on Women’s Day” exhibition produced by the TCS with an acrylic painting.

During the last 3 years Bahar has been living half the year in the Turkish Mediterranean and she has predominantly focused on photography. She also has started sculpting.