Progressive Street

  I prefer to use flash as I think using your artificial light adds a new form to candid street photography

Being a businesswoman who has been a consultant and trainer on executive development for a long time, it has only been five years that I have been involved in taking photographs. Nonetheless, photography has become my best occupation ever since. Trained in high-level photography, street and studio photography; I’ve participated in various exhibitions and projects worldwide, acted as a jury and an administrator in a number of prominent photography groups and had interviews with photography magazines and groups on various platforms.

For the last two years, I have been taking candid street photography with an external flash, trying to capture the instant feelings and gestures of people on the streets. As the media has lately been dominated by the so-called “selfie culture” filtering the photos of the ordinary people to appear as “the most” beautiful, perfect and desirable; candid street photography tends to act as a natural reflector of the lives of the people on the streets. The candid photographer tries to capture the people in their daily lives with no pre-posed appearances, no posed expressions and no set-up scene… I prefer to use flash as I think using your artificial light adds a new form to candid street photography.

Besides the candid; I take photos documenting the urban transformation in various districts of Istanbul. I also like to take conceptual photographs that trigger a current of thought on the fundamental theme of ontology as I believe the philosophy behind existentialism is one of our eternal discussions

I believe photography is about the freedom in expressing ourselves with our unique points of view; with the decision moment reflecting the transcendent aesthetics; the sensory perception of the photographer on that very moment of being. Though, lately, I have been intrigued with what I believe as a paradox in the nature of photography itself. It seems to act as a long-lasting way of communicating with new generations, leaving a legacy for documentation, passing the emotions of the era, giving clues on political approaches and living styles through the eyes of various witnesses of those times, shortly handing down the “zeitgeist” to the next generations. However, the photographers should keep in mind that the moment they capture a scene; they imprison it in their own point of reflection, killing the moment of truth right over there whereas the ongoing life plays another game. And the photograph becomes a simulacrum at the end…

A sombre and serious scene presents itself for the viewer’s attention, one full of destruction, confusion and human pain. The smouldering building becomes a backdrop to the smaller stories and big emotions at play within this one frame alone – from the person looking on in hopelessness as if in a trance, to the mannequin legs almost randomly placed in the foreground. A traumatic moment documented in its most raw state. We’d like to understand more about the scene and the photographer’s intention. – LIFE FRAMER

Photographer statement – A scene from Suleymaniye Istanbul, during a time when its urban transformation project was underway. As an Ottoman district from 16th century, Suleymaniye is famous forits mosques, churches, madrasahs and authentic social complexes. It was included in UNESCO History Heritage list in 1985. As the area was declared a renewal area, the neighborhood has experienced a massive eviction of the local residents. As time went by, the derelict housing increased and the area became occupied by homeless immigrants, paper collectors and locals trying to survive. The rundown environment acted not only as a trash area of all kinds but also as temporary housing for the poor immigrant population, some of whom have even resided in wall-less, to be knocked-down buildings. The collective memory of the neighborhood day by day yielded to the fit packaged practices of neoliberal urbanization. The scene was among one of the series of photographs that shows the uprooting and the tragic transformation of the neighborhood between the 2018 and 2023.

She participates with two photographs at Yunus Emre Institute - "Sefarad - Collective Art Exhibition of Turkish Separad Artists", on June 1, 2023 in Frankfurt am Main - Römerhallen at 18.30, Curator Terry Katalan

Group Exhibition

I take photos documenting the urban transformation in various districts of Istanbul.