Discipline
Photography
About the artist
I live in Istanbul. I am 41 years old. For 23 years of life spent in Istanbul, I have been not only active within and in solidarity with the LGBTQIA+ movement, but also have worked as a business manager and DJ, creating queer-centered spaces in the entertainment sector of Beyoğlu. After losing my job during the pandemic, I had an opportunity to devote more time to the art of photography, which has been my passion since my adolescence. Starting my photographic adventure with street photos of Istanbul, I attempted to convey the street moods of Istanbul with their socio-psychological-cultural and economic states amidst the quarantine. In my photographs, I express the inner ‘normal’ form of LGBTIA+ socialities by taking biographic portraits with daily touches that are free from violence-centered narratives and violations of rights, sharing the commune spaces within the city memory; emphasizing gender identities, variety of sexual expressions as well as their differences and connections on social, class and cultural basis. Throughout the quarantine, I have taken numerous photographs, most of which were captured at the feminist protests. I intend to communicate both personally and collectively the political processes and solidarity kinds on both sides of the current conditions of Turkey. In face of photography that is narrated, shaped and documented through cis(non-trans)-heteronormative male eye in industry- and collective-specific terms, I, as a trans woman, produce photographs in an autobiographical tone, envisioning what it would be like if it were seen through a queer feminist perspective.
2022, There’s a place, Digital photography, 35mm, Black-White, 52.83x35.22 cm