Personal Statement on Art
I’m a Toronto-based photographer, and a part-time PhD student studying environmental ethics and early-modern German philosophy. My background is Turkish, although my birthplace and first home is in Svishtov, Bulgaria, a small town on the Danube River. I was born during the Cold War, behind the “Iron Curtain”, at a time when state authorities sought to disavow and brutally repress my family’s collective identity, by denying the reality of our ancestral Turkish ethnicity, and by suppressing our right to practice our Islamic faith.
I was raised in a spiritually barren political and cultural climate. This left me with a profound kind of emptiness, a void at my core. As I grow older, with the help of my family and our two young children ... and as I’ve been living with a chronic, difficult illness ... I've started to recover a sense of personal spirituality.
Since I can't quite see my way toward a formal, organized religion, I feel my moral “salvation” lies in thoughtful engagement with art ... that I might begin to approach the transcendent through purposeful creative activity.
I was fortunate enough to have received a surprisingly comprehensive education in photography at a very young age, while living with my parents as refugee expats in North Africa in the 80s. Starting in Grade 6, I was taught all the basics of film photography. Recently, I’ve come to realize that I’ve been using my camera all these years not just as a way of documenting various surface aspects of our world but rather in the hope that, within this world, it might still be possible to encounter and, in a way, to capture intimations of the sacred and sublime.
My ultimate purpose in creating any personal artistic project, whatever its scope and whatever particular theme I may choose, is to deepen and to broaden this nascent spirituality ... and, bit by bit, to re-enchant my world. Pressing my camera shutter is now both my aesthetic-artistic expression, a ritualistic performance and a form of prayer, all rolled into one. In this regard, because he also saw photographic art as a route to the spiritual, Minor White is one of my all-time favourite photographers and heroes. For similar reasons, I admire Kandinsky … and I must also include my teacher and mentor at McGill University, the renowned philosopher Charles Taylor.
Statement on Portraiture
We often hear that the point of portrait photography is to capture the subject's essential "character" or even, in some sense, to embody their "spirit" or "soul." I think this is impossible. Instead, the point is to provoke interest in the subject ... to induce intense wonder, on the part of viewers of a portrait, about the character or even the "spirit" of the person behind it. This is achieved when the portrait avoids bringing the subject fully into view, as it were, under a glaring light. A compelling portrait leaves core aspects of the subject partially obscured, ideally through some form of visual abstraction. The ultimate meaning of the portrait image ought to remain elusive ... and hence open to further inquiry.
When it comes to my own work, I focus on creative portraiture, editorial-style work and related fields. I often use innovative lighting techniques and try to emphasize shadows, as much as light, by way of sculpting form and figure in order to add a sense of intrigue and intimacy to my images. I also often apply non-generic colour grading, mainly in order to create an atmosphere that is complimentary to my subject's character … but also, again, to grab and hold the viewer’s attention.
That said, I also definitely aim to present my subjects in ways that emphasize their inner strength and dignity, and I often try to capture them in contemplative, thoughtful or meditative moments. … Basically, I aim to produce images that are both intriguing and “timeless.”
I'm available for commissions and am able to serve both private individuals, as well as commercial/institutional clients.
Biography
I am currently based in Toronto, Canada … but my background is Turkish-Bulgarian, and I was born in Svishtov, a small town on the Danube River. During the 80s, my family and I lived as ex-pats in North Africa, in Tripoli, Libya.
I learned about photography for the first time while attending an international school, the “Oil Companies School [OCS],” for the children of foreign workers, starting in Grade 6 at age 10. Remarkably, early on, I was given a comprehensive education in the core photographic practices - including film camera work, composition and aesthetics, darkroom techniques, etc.
I continued my education in photography after coming to Canada with my family in the late 1980s. Ever since, I have been a lifelong lover, practitioner and occasional photography teacher.
I am a graduate of McGill University (BA), McMaster University (MA), and the University of Toronto Faculty of Law (JD). I’m a recipient of multiple prestigious scholarships and grants and a peer-reviewed, published author. I practiced law for several years, but for the sake of my health, I changed track and returned to school to do graduate-level work.
My family and I live in downtown Toronto, including my wife and our two young children. In addition to my photography practice, I am a part-time Ph.D. student in philosophy at the University of Western Ontario. My studies focus on environmental philosophy as well as the work of early-modern German philosophers, namely Kant and Hegel. You can find more information about me via my links page:
... trivia ...
... In my spare time, I play chess with my kids and enjoy making Bauhaus-style sketches like the one on this page.
... I fell in love with the music of Pink Floyd when I was about 7 or 8 years old, which might possibly explain some of my melancholic tendencies.
... Two of my favourite films: Steven Soderbergh's "Kafka", starring Jeremy Irons ... and "Wildside (Vildspor)", starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Mads Mikkelsen.
... All-time favourite dish: Cassoulet ... which I've managed to cook only a grand total of 3 times, so far.
... The languages I was taught, from earliest to the latest: Turkish, Bulgarian, Russian, English, Arabic, French, German. ... The languages I know, from best to least: English, Bulgarian, Turkish, German, French, Russian, Arabic (merely a selection of words and phrases).
... Two of my favourite photographs: Minor White's "Peeled Paint" and André Kertész's "Chez Mondrian".