When Michael invited me to respond to the work in this exhibition, the first image that rose to the surface was a vintage wedding portrait of my grandparents, who migrated from Bulgaria to Turkey. I don’t have many pictures of my past, but their relationship, and the fragments of stories my grandmother carried with her, have always stayed close.
My photographs come from moments on the move—images taken in cars, as a driver or a passenger, unplanned, unposed, unframed. They are just
captured. Some of them have a quality like paintings, with colours and shapes that linger long after the moment has passed.
The photographs I take are not part of my bubble. They are things I see in fleeting instants that I can never return to or fully understand. In a way, I’m saying to them: you’ve been seen, you’ve been acknowledged. There is an ethical question in that, but I like that I don’t know their stories and am not shaped by any bias beyond that split second.
My photographs contrast with the paintings in the show because they are not posed or made for a specific purpose, yet both bodies of work are archival in their own ways. We are both looking at people, trying to convey the impressions they leave on us. Within the contrast, a shared narrative emerges.
Many of the photos stay with me. Each feels like it carries a story, mixed with the time, the place, and how I was in that moment.
I also like bringing plants into the gallery. They are important in our lives, and it feels like adding one more piece of ourselves to the space. I don’t like a too clean, clinical gallery setup; this feels more alive.
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