Présentation de l'artiste

Yusuf Bayraktar

Yusuf Bayraktar is a 25-year-old Turkish photographer based in Istanbul and Ankara. Around the age of 12, he began taking his family's old analog camera on weekly school trips, which quickly sparked a passion for capturing his surroundings. Though his photographic style is still evolving, he has a particular interest in rural landscapes and the themes of life and death, feeling lost, and human solitude.

He is currently working on two ongoing projects: one exploring the sense of disorientation experienced by Turkish youth in an uncertain economic climate, and the other documenting the everyday lives of people around the world.

Artist statement

As the starters of the new generation, we as the youth, grow up with the ragbag of the city life with cars, buildings, noises and all of the man made architectures. "Disparition" project reflects the feeling of getting lost in the emptiness of nature, away from all the things we have got accustomed to and finding ourselves in the center of what had been there even before us. It is a depiction of feeling lost in the formations of the world itself. A bittersweet realization of relaxation and feeling at home, yet being so far away from what we actually call home. These photographs are taken throughout years in different parts of Turkey from Anatolia's empty barrens to Black Sea region's impressive natural beauties. These places are no more than 2 hours from the closest big city, making them capture the closeness of nature to the city and how far it feels from the city in a more meaningful way.