Black Swan Series, 2024
50x40cm Each, Archival Pigment Print, Framed
Ephemerals I & II, 2023
102,5x100cm Each, Archival Pigment Print
The term "Efemera" in Turkish conveys the meaning of "transient entities, impermanent publications." Its English counterpart, "ephemera," is a borrowed term signifying the same concept; however the English word is the plural form of the Ancient Greek expression denoting a "May beetle with a lifespan of one day."
The act of collecting small, fleeting artifacts tied to daily life has evolved into a form of curation, symbolizing the memories each of us gathers and etches into our minds. While our time on Earth is comparably brief when contemplating the vastness of life and the cosmos, what we witness, undergo, and mentally document serves as our profound treasure. As life unfolds, these experiences, though crumpled and set aside in the recesses of our minds, metamorphose into tangible evidence of the journey we've undertaken.
The Nightwalker, 2023
170x90cm, Archival Pigment Print
The pinhole technique, one of the oldest photographic methods, is based on a very simple principle: creating an image by allowing enough light through a hole the size of a needle onto a photosensitive surface. Since there is no viewfinder, the framing is adjusted through imagination, thus opening the doors to a surreal world. Named Camera Obscura due to its working principle, this device functions as a quite primitive image generator and fixer.
The artwork titled "The Nightwalker" is produced using the pinhole and long exposure technique. Placed in front of the same scene chosen by the artist for days and nights, the pinhole records the image through this primitive method with an extended exposure. The dialectics of time and space, essential elements of photography, demonstrate through this technique that the boundaries of a captured photograph cannot be confined to a single moment. It indicates that the surface recording the image can function like memory itself, capable of handling the continuous variability of conditions and the concept of time across a broad spectrum. Time, space, and dimension melt into each other, capturing millions of moments in a layered manner entirely through an analog and primitive method.
The resulting image, continuously recorded onto the same surface during both night and day, is neither dark nor light; in fact, these blue and purple tones converge in a perfect middle ground, in twilight.
The Searchlight, 2023
83x120cm, Archival Pigment Print
The pinhole technique, one of the oldest photographic methods, is based on a very simple principle: creating an image by allowing enough light through a hole the size of a needle onto a photosensitive surface. Since there is no viewfinder, the framing is adjusted through imagination, thus opening the doors to a surreal world. Named Camera Obscura due to its working principle, this device functions as a quite primitive image generator and fixer.
"The Searchlight" emerges from the marriage of the pinhole technique and the artistry of long exposure. Positioned steadfastly before the meticulously chosen panorama by the artist, the pinhole patiently captures the essence of the scene through this rudimentary yet profoundly captivating method. It extends an invitation to traverse the boundaries of time and space, illustrating that a photograph, essentially a frozen moment, can, in reality, transcend the confinement of a singular instant.
The composition of the artwork unveils luminous curves that eloquently narrate the celestial ballet of the sun across the firmament. Each passing day orchestrates a subtle choreography as the sun's resplendent beams gracefully adjust by a degree, a celestial dance accentuated by the ebb and flow of the equinox. This play of light not only paints a visual symphony but also serves as a testament to the dynamic interplay of time and space.
The artful convergence of time, space, and dimension manifests in a tapestry of layered moments, meticulously captured through an analog and primitive method. The resulting image, an incessant recording etched onto the same surface during both the serene embrace of night and the vibrant hues of day, defies the binary constraints of darkness and light. Instead, it finds harmony in the ethereal shades of blue and purple, orchestrating a delicate dance in the twilight's embrace.
Counting The Days, 2022
Archival pigment print
Surrender, 2022
Archival pigment print
Great Dream I & II, 2022
Arşivsel pigment baskı, Archival pigment print
Kaybolan // Disappeared, 2020
Arşivsel pigment baskı, Archival pigment print, 30x50 cm
Tekrarlayan Hakikat // Occuring Truth, 2021
Değişken Boyutlar, Arşivsel Pigment Baskı // Variable Sizes, Archival Pigment Print
Images can be confusing. The most (important) major point about photography is its strong connections between reality and representation of reality of the time and the space we are in. Those connections make photography a solid archive so that we could always rely on the facts that it shows. But there is always a catch, what if the reality isn't confidential at all? This mind-blowing question is a priority that we have to deal with, for recent times that we are in. It’s a conflict of the truth itself and everyone is threatened by the truth that we couldn't believe in. That's why we call this century Post Truth. Photography is in danger as a way of archiving and demonstrating the actual events that occured. Even by politics itself, or if governments from all over the world who have the power in their hands for use to make any changes or to warp and twist the circumstances throughout their own benefits in the toxic, dark atmosphere, who could find the truth? Answer may be hidden here, to make an effort, to dig the ground so deep. There is always hope in acting, maybe we might get closer if we dig harder.
The series of Occurring Truth is about that digging. If we tear the layers persistently, the truth may come out, in a metaphorical way. All the grays might tear up in the end by blossoming colour itself.
Saklayıcı // Hider, 2016-2018
Archival Pigment Print
According to psychology, humans have survival instincts that reveal vital circumstances. Panic may make humans so wild and make them capable of extreme things. In those cases, the act of hiding isn’t one to be extreme but a special one.
The images are composed of both acts of hiding and being a hider without a subject (figure) in the series of Hider. There are so many traces behind runaways that we can track down in the images. Even if we figure out the marks of living things, we won’t find them in the flesh.
Hazineler // Treasures, 2016
3+1 ed. Archival Pigment Print
“kaymağı alınmış süt gibi ışığın genellikle zayıf olduğu bu yerde bile
güneşin parladığı günler oluyor; öyle bir günde otobüste
bir yolcu dönüp dokunuyor bana, elleri nasırlı, gülümsüyor.
Ve o anda her şey gönüllü bir mirasa dönüşüyor..”
Chris Killip
Hazineler, ışığın cazibesi ve bellek
Şehirler insanların arzularını nesneleştiren devasa yapıda siluetlerdir. “Hazineler” serisinde bu siluetlerin arkasına saklanmış, altlarına gömülmüş, üzerine basılmış, örtülmüş, gizlenmiş ve kaybolmuş anların içinde kendi arzularını arayan Can Akgümüş, izleyiciyi yoğun olarak kullandığı ışığın peşine düşürerek, anıların insan zihnindeki belirleyiciliğini somutlaştırıyor. Sanatçının doğadan arda kalanları/ bıraktıklarımızı onarmak isteyen bir dille işlerinde sıklıkla kullandığı doğa detayları Cézanne'ın “Doğa içeridedir” sözünü doğruluyor. Bu onarım, bir fotoğrafta gökyüzünü taşımaya çalışan ahşap bir iskeleye dönüşürken diğer bir fotoğrafta bir binayı örtmek istercesine geride bırakan ağaç dalları olarak karşımıza çıkıyor.
Fotoğraflanan anlar, kimi karelerde kazara yapılan bir keşif, kimisinde kanıksadığımız ve gözden kaçırdığımız, ya da kaçırmak istediğimiz gerçekleri kayda geçiren bir belge, kimisinde ise göz kamaştıran ama kayıttan düşmüş, ardında ne olduğunu bilmediğimiz ama aynı zamanda tanıdık yerleri işaret ediyor. Yer değiştiren, titreyen ve parıldayan görüntüler hareketi sağlıyor. Bu noktada güncel görüntünün göze, gözün ruhuna nakledilişiyle oynayan sanatçı görünmezin gizini arttırıyor. Görüntüye damga indiren “an”lar, izleyiciye neyi hatırlatmak istiyor?
Gölgelenmekte olan şey paylaşılamayacak kadar esrarengiz bir sır mı?
Yoksa yalın bir gerçeği mi iddia ediyor?
Ezgi Yıldız, 2016.
The Garden of Forgetting // Unutma Bahçesi, 2016
Archival Pigment Print
Same Sky // Aynı Göyüzü, 2015
3D Lightbox , 1.5x1.5m
Wet Dream // Islak Rüya, 2014
Archival Pigment Print
Doma I, 2015
Photography Installation
Memory Of Mirror // Aynanın Hafızası, 2012-15
C-Print, Diasec // Archival Pigment Print
Parallel Universe // Paralel Evrenler, 2012
C-Print, Diasec // Archival Pigment Print