BAK: Revealing the City through Memory
2012-2018
BAK: Revealing the City through Memory was launched in 2012 by Anadolu Kültür in collaboration with docİstanbul – Center for Documentary Studies and Geniş Açı Project Office (GAPO), as a cultural and artistic production programme based in Istanbul and Diyarbakır. Bringing together young people from different cities across Türkiye, BAK invited them to explore and tell stories about the places they live through photography, video, and other visual means. The programme sought to reflect the multilingual and multicultural character of these cities, as well as their ongoing transformations, through the perspectives and experiences of young people. From the outset, BAK was conceived as an open space for anyone interested in exploring the possibilities and hopes of living together.
Over the six years following its launch, BAK developed and implemented alternative workshop formats covering every stage of the creative process, in collaboration with the teams at docİstanbul and GAPO, who served as the programme’s photography and video advisors. Across three editions between 2012 and 2018, 60 young people from 12 cities worked together to produce photographic and video stories about their cities. More than 200 young people participated in BAK’s training programmes, while thousands of viewers encountered their work through exhibitions and screenings. Over the years, public and cultural institutions and collectives in different cities joined the programme, hosting workshops and educational activities, while photographers, filmmakers, contemporary artists, and academics became part of BAK’s expanding network as tutors and speakers.
From 2017 onwards, BAK expanded beyond face-to-face encounters, workshops, and production programmes to become an online platform, with a focus on broadening youth participation and bringing more voices into dialogue. The platform invites young storytellers from across Türkiye to share photographic and video work through open calls, while writers, artists, and academics contribute critical responses to these works. It also makes translated resources on documentary photography and video available online, combining the production and dissemination of knowledge with an emphasis on critical approaches to reading visual stories.
Building on this experience, BAK continues to bring together storytellers working with photography and video who are seeking to develop and make their practices visible. It remains a space for learning, exchange, and collective engagement, connecting young people around shared interests and creating opportunities to produce, discuss, and share visual stories about the places and issues that shape their lives.
