WHAT WE ARE HIDING UNDER OUR CLOTHING
“It’s all the same and different, but the same.”
I have been working as a wedding photographer for 16 years, capturing the happiest and most beautiful moments of my clients. Sometimes, those moments were not as happy as they seemed, and some clients wanted to look more beautiful through Photoshop. It didn’t matter how they looked or felt in front of the camera; my role was to create and record scenes that appeared happier and more beautiful than reality.
As I looked at the thousands of portraits stored on albums and hard disks, I found myself stepping outside the pursuit of external beauty. The bonds with my clients and the photos we created were precious, but they often felt superficial. For the past 20 years, I have followed what my clients wanted, but now I wish to capture what I want to see in the next chapter of my life.
While studying MA Photography at Goldsmiths, I spent a lot of time reflecting on myself—where I came from and where I am headed. I tried to express these thoughts through the lens of religion, which was a joyful and meaningful endeavor. However, now I want to go beyond that and explore the essence of human existence itself. As we enter an era dominated by AI, I am curious about how human identity will evolve and where the boundaries between humans and machines will lie. Through photography, I aim to visually research and present these questions.
Photography, which started as a hobby in high school, became my major in college and eventually led me to open the studio of my dreams. This passion continued as I met my wife, had children, and embraced my faith. Over the past 20 years, I have captured many people on camera, but I have never truly captured the essence of humanity. To me, there is no subject more fascinating than human beings—the measure of all things, the ruler of nature, and the ones who maintain the world’s balance through faith and good deeds. My goal is to spend the rest of my life exploring humanity through my lens.
The experimental methodologies I’ve accumulated over the past 20 years will now serve as artistic tools in my work. People will reveal their true selves and conceal their inner nature within the frame I construct. They will display a range of emotions influenced by specific circumstances, religions, objects, and contexts. Raw emotions such as joy and anger, love and pleasure, good and evil, and even human sins and mistakes, recurring in cycles dictated by the universe or a divine plan, will all act as the narratives in my work. My role will begin as a creator constructing a frame to explore humanity and end as an observer recording the emotions and characteristics revealed within that frame. My mission is to use these tools to create a space and offer a visual experience that invites new perspectives for those who participate in and observe this space.