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The contemporary art exhibition series, New Photography whose 2nd exhibition will be held this year, “Medium in New Ways”, pursues basic questions such as ‘’What is photography?’’, ‘’What are the limits of it, if there are any.’’ ‘’How artists deal/communicate with today's world via photography?’’, ‘’What are the new possible ways of storytelling and how photographers can play with the medium drawing on other mediums as well?"
While some of the photographers only work analogue and rely on uniqueness of each film roll, for some taken photograph is only a raw material to play with endless possibilities in digital age. For some other, found material is the way to go for new creations in different contexts and photography could co-operate with other disciplines while boundaries could become barely perceptible leading further discussions on the future of medium.
Despite their difference on style and method, all these artists are aware of the time we live in and their work is quite time-specific responding today’s subject matters. This exhibition relatedly has been proposed under four main subtitles as “Modern Society Critique”, “New Documentary”, “Analogue Experiences in Digital Age” and “Genre Breaking “ to discuss exhibited works in such contexts.
Artists in the exhibition
Aras Gökten criticizes urban spaces we live in while questioning man’s relationship to its urban environment. Gökten questions alienation, rather called artificialness caused by post-human development of today with his everyday life imagery.
Hannes Wiedemann reviews man's relationship to technology via the story of cybors and investigates human & technology intersection photographing future possibilities.
Esther Hovers investigates how power, politics and control are exercised via urban planning in public space by analyzing intelligent surveillance systems.
Miguel Angel Tornero addresses photography as not a final object to count on, but as a “raw material” to play with with. Tornero takes snapshots and creates city collages that is randomly created by software in which “unexpected becomes the protagonist”, confronting documentary photography'' s believed mission to present things “as they are”.
Rehan Miskci offers fresh perspective to the theme of identity with an interdisciplinary approach, re-contextualizing archive photographs to create fragmented, semi-abstract photo collages. During this process she uses photography medium in relation to others (installation, video) locating photography between two dimensional to three dimensional level.
A distinctive documentation on one’s own roots which doesn’t put “the self” in the centre, Cihad Caner photographs his roots in relation with non-human elements as objects, animals and nature non-hierarchically.
Öncü Gültekin is among those who still give analogue a chance as he experiments with possibilities of each specific type of camera he uses while taking advantage of its limitations and offered vision for his snapshot like city portraits.
Weronika Gesicka creates modified and re-contextualized collages by found vintage images from an image bank, wondering what can be done with old prints in digital age and how could photography create a bridge between the past and present.
With their unique ways of exploring questions in different aesthetics and methods these young, both local and international photographers deal with the medium of photography in such ways that deserves to be mentioned in defining contemporary photography today, bringing along fresh perspectives.
The exhibition curated by Seda Yıldız can be seen at ALAN İstanbul in Beyoğlu between January 52017 – February 5, 2017. (TK)
