We spoke to young Turkish photographer Ali Taptık (1983), a self-taught photographer who graduated from the Istanbul Technical University with degrees in History of Architecture (MArch) and Architecture (BArch). The artist's work has been featured in exhibitions throughout the world, including Cuadro Art Gallery in Dubai, Atelier de Visu in Marseille and Kiasma in Helsinki. In addition to being represented by Istanbul-based gallery The Empire Project at Unseen Photo Fair, Taptık's work will appear in Foam Magazine #32 / Talent and in a large billboard exhibition in the surrounding Westerpark during Unseen.

Can you tell us about when/how you started taking photographs, your approach to photography and a little about your work in general? 

I started taking pictures when I was seven, but I started 'photography' when I was sixteen. Now I’m thinking of giving up 'photography' and going back to taking and making pictures.[1] When I started, I actually wanted to become a writer, yet the sitting and writing part wasn’t something for me but I loved the mortification of 'photography': Dealing with prints, selecting them, all the hassle around it... The lack of good art and photography education in Istanbul led me to study architecture, which was one of the best decisions of my life although I have never practiced.

This sums up a lot about my approach to 'photography' or images in general. I am someone who tries to construct narratives or statements with pictures, photographs that I compare to words. To me, taking pictures is like collecting words. I rearrange these words, which are representations of 'reality', to construct novels, much similar to what fiction writers do. This is how the series about accidentality, Kaza ve Kader, and about the notion of crisis, Nothing Surprising, came to life...

But I used photography in other contexts as well, like in the series Familiar Strangers, Towards a flora or Meridians, where I use image making as a mode of creative studying. I would compare these more to non-fictional essays.


Untitled, from the series Nothing Surprising © Ali Taptik/The Empire Project

What gets your creativity flowing?

People, walking and literature...

Do you have other (creative) interests besides photography?

I am part of a collective for distribution and promotion of artists’ books in and from Turkey. I’ve worked as a director of photography in some short films and did some myself (see below) but that would still be related to photography, wouldn’t it? I study the city through architecture and design as well. Being a PhD student in Architectural Design, I can’t really draw a line between the 'creative' and the 'scientific'. I might have a lot of them, or none, as everything is somehow interconnected.

"your face won't be visible..." from ali taptik on Vimeo.

What do you wish to communicate with your photographs? What would you like people to take away from your work?

In my opinion, being able to answer this question makes my work obsolete. I do photography because of my inability to express myself effectively with words. Meaning doesn’t exist on its own, whatever every person brings, gives a part of her/himself. If I can make someone give a part of him/herself to an image I consider myself successful. If it becomes something that they would like to interact with again, like the book that you keep reading over and over, or the album that you listen on that moody or happy-day.


Untitled, from the series Nothing Surprising © Ali Taptik/The Empire Project

How do you see collecting photographs? Are you a collector yourself?

I don’t think you can collect photographs but you can collect prints of photographs. Photographs exist in a very strange dimension and especially in this day and age when a photograph doesn’t need any physical presence to 'be', I find this difference rather important. I collect prints of photographs that touch me/ I also collect books and mostly photobooks. As I stated before, these are primarily the ones that I have been in-some sort of exchange or mental barter with so that I want to keep them close to myself. Or, they are ones where the conversation/dialog is not finished yet.


We would like to thank The Empire Project and Ali Taptık for this interview.