Issue #24

İpek: As far as I know, you are not a gallery artist and a collective member, and you don’t have a website. Therefore, while inviting you to make an interview, it was both frightening and exciting to find so little information about you on the Internet. Can you talk about your production practice and perspective on the photography? Ali: Actually, I am not that kind of person who produces photographs regularly, who is with the camera constantly to take some photographs. There are several reasons for this, but the biggest reason is that I am the kind of person who likes to take photographs when I find my own story. I don’t consciously choose the story either; it is something I am approaching emotionally and intuitively. When it can attracts me and to takes me somewhere, I go after it and find myself in a story.

Mert: When did you start to go back to the old photos and manipulating them? Zeynep: I can say that this is a more of an aesthetic concern, to return to the series of "Seğmenler Park" - almost to the very beginning. I didn't like the first versions of the photos I took. The blurry, textured photos that I had attained by taking the photos of the old images repeatedly were more "beautiful" for me. This has turned into a technique that can advance me. But the technique that I'm going to use is changing every time.

A photograph needs time and space to exist. In order for a photograph to occur, firstly it is necessary to decide these two cases: where and when it will be taken. Photography is an outward representation of space an time and it has a fundamental importance with this feature. It is one of the most effective methods for documenting by the ability to reflect and capture everything in front of the lens, thanks to the camera’s capability.

Since May 2015; there is a work that I admire its power but I couldn't dare to write about as it is too simple: a splinter. It has never come down with the first meaning of the word and always have extra meanings to it. A word/concept that is always referred with other images as it is the smallest possible version of its injury/puncture meaning: punching, sticking, toy, childhood, needle, punctum, glance, spider, crumb, cactus, souvenir, epiphany, leather, the thing, etc etc etc. I am very impressed with the fact that the splinter cannot stay just as a splinter.

I would like to talk about Nicolo Degiorgis, a name that I think should not be omitted while discussing photobooks. When we think of photobooks as a chosen medium, to present selected photographs from alternatives, this is a name that we can clearly see why selects this medium in particular.

Merve Seçkin’s “Ashes to Dust” series is about the power of the visually self-attracting photographs and the experiences in a place where the photographs exactly sustain. The artist read “The Left Hand of The Darkness” by Ursula Le Guin and tried to portray the unknown planet there, and thus created a “new world” literally.

In order to sustain human life; forests, fields, and gardens which provide oxygen and food should be indispensable for a city; but they are being destroyed for the sake of increasing city population and to gain unearned income. More people; less fresh air, less fresh food… It is obvious that there is a contradiction here, but nobody wants to see it?

Sometimes we perceive the geographies in which the wars have been continuing as soldiers, weapons, and losses, and we feel as if there are conflicts in every place, at any moment. However, among all the struggles, the civil population tries to preserve their physical and emotional/ spiritual integrity and to continue their life.

Gold Coast is the story of the South Coast by Ying Ang, which is known as the capital of the crime in Australia and turned into a center of attraction by real estate marketing companies.

“Timeless Blues” begins with the words of Murat Uyurkulak in his book Tol: “Because the boredom kills. And but boredom kills, pain and anger do not, but boredom kills. It can be very temporary, momentary, innocent; but it kills”, and focuses on the word “boredom”. On the contrary to the general opinion of the word, it does not attribute cliche and negative meanings.