Artist Statement

I am a self taught photographer using large format cameras and specializing in alternative
photographic processes. I was drawn into historical photography by the DİY spirit of that kind of
photographic practice. I love to be part of every step of my process and interfere as much as
possible. While learning the wet plate collodion technique, I discovered the joy of making mistakes
and since then I’m trying to increase the possibility of them in my work. I scratch, draw-on, bleach
and otherwise damage my negatives. Afterwards I complement the damage in a way that I feel is
necessary with pencil or graphite powder retouching. Recently I included a third step to my
workflow, which is a mordançage process.
The tension between the beauty of a large format negative and the damage I cause it would be
the core of my creative process. The destruction of something I just created with a manipulation
technique, which might or might not deepen the photograph. This is not necessarily a one-time
event, I tend to come back to my negatives, rework them again and again, until at one point I feel
that they revealed their true potential. This might take months, sometimes years. I chose paper
negative process exactly for this versatility and space for mistakes it provides for me. I feel that a
straight photographic print is a raw matter that requires my hand to truly become my expression.
Photograph, I feel, is not unlike a dream, a message for me from myself. By answering it I also
complete myself.