"An Endless Journey 1972-2016"  Istanbul, Turkey  May.2016

Story Of A Photobook

It all began in the late 1960s, when a photographer friend of the family told my mother, "Send him over to work with me during the holidays; he'll learn a thing or two about the profession." I remembered the day my boss would send me to the local teashop to pick up warm water for development. We would prepare the chemical baths for films and postcards ourselves, by eyeball estimate, develop the films, then print them on postcard. I began my adventure in this business on the factory floor... When, in my senior year in high school, I showed my art teacher the photographs I took and he asked, "Why don't you display your photographs in an exhibition?" a new door opened before me.... A few frames I shot when I fell under fire during the May 1st celebrations at Taksim Square on May 1, 1977 survived to date as an important testimony to that period.... In today's complex world, there is so much we can learn from this culture that many of us never learn about due to our failure to overcome our prejudices and preconceptions. Finding happiness in small things may be one lesson we can learn. How many of us succeed in doing that?... From the "Romani" weddings in Tekirdag to Assyrian weddings in Sirnak, from the Holy Easter Week services at the Orthodox Church in Antakya to yuruk shepherd Hamza Efendi of Karaburun, I have made thousands of friends. However, Teacher Mehmet Kabaca, who carried me from one village to the next on the back of his Jawa motorcycle in the 1970s, holds a very special place in my journey as a photographer. It is impossible to count them all. In truth, this tells their stories.