Yarına Bakmak [Orijinal Başlık: Türkiye’de Fotoğraf Sanatının Dünü Bugünü Yarını?]
(≈Looking Toward Tomorrow [Original title: The Past, Present, and Future of Photographic Art in Turkey?])
Refik Akyüz, Serdar Darendeliler
Foto Atlas, Issue 19, November 2014
"Originally, this was meant to be an article along the lines of “art photography in Turkey.” However, the ambiguous and slippery nature of the term “art photography”; the fact that, because of the documentary quality inherent in so many photographic works, the venues in which we have traditionally encountered works initially defined as documentary photography are now, as one might expect, no longer newspapers or magazines but galleries, museums, or books; the fact that the number of photographers working with “documents” to make “art” is by no means insignificant today; and many other reasons have led us to deliberately steer clear of navigating the waters of “art photography in Turkey.”
In any case, as you will have read in Orhan Cem Çetin’s text in the preceding pages, we will eventually have no need for discussions and assessments aimed at distinguishing documentary photography from photography that is art. For these reasons, rather than embarking on an undertaking that would be difficult, if not meaningless, to define as “art photography in Turkey,” or attempting a study such as “the past and present of photographic art in Turkey,” which would require a lengthy period of preparation and a comprehensive scope extending well beyond the limits of this article—we have deliberately avoided doing so, as indicated by the strikethroughs in the title, not because we deny or disregard the past and present—we have chosen instead to put forward a proposition consisting of a new generation of photographers working in different styles, whose names we hope to hear more frequently in the coming years and whose work has the potential to represent “the future of photographic art in Turkey.” The question mark in the title refers precisely to this “unknown.”
We would particularly like to emphasize that, in making this selection, we have included—both as a nod to the world of galleries and in order to open up another possible venue for engaging with photography as art—photographers who did not at the time have agreements with any gallery. Otherwise, the selection could easily have been three or four times larger by including photographers who had established a place for themselves in the “art market” since the 2000s, or even much earlier.
The photographers featured here represent a broad spectrum: from those who see themselves as being close to social documentary photography to those whose work is closer to personal documentary; from those who visualize questions of memory, representation, and identity through archival material to those who combine text and photography. Many have previously participated in solo and group exhibitions at various festivals, alternative venues, and galleries. Many are also interested in the book as a medium and conceive of the book as the ultimate form in which their work will be presented.
Of course, there are many other names who fall outside this selection. In the following pages, you will encounter examples of work by the photographers featured here, presented in alphabetical order by surname, alongside brief biographies and their responses to the question, “What is your dream or goal regarding photography in the near future?” We hope their work will prove thought-provoking and inspiring for you, the readers of Foto Atlas."
(Translation of the excerpt from the article)
[Click here to view and download the full article in Turkish as the original PDF.]