Ulaş Akdemir

Project Statement

R G B
(2024)
Urban people are individuals who, due to their environment, have strong connections with the world and are culturally significant. They generally earn their living through trade or industry. With capitalism, cities have always been a gateway to new opportunities for people living in rural areas, who have migrated to cities.
When these migrations were conscious, they benefited the development of the city, strengthened its workforce, and created a new generation of city dwellers from the children of the migrants. However, when these migrations were unconscious, villages were abandoned, and cities were most affected by this phenomenon.
Since the 1950s, Turkey has suffered from these unplanned migrations. Here, I have interpreted the urban dynamics of Izmir using photography and digital photography techniques. Izmir is a city affected by the unplanned migration experienced by Turkey. It is home to rural people who have not become urbanized and individuals harmed by the unemployment caused by excessive migration, people whose lives are ruined by the intense production of the jobs they find. Everything seems like a digital image, and because everything is intertwined, we see it as colorful. In such situations, to live in this city, one must get lost in it and separate its colors.
Izmir is like a digital photograph (the most suitable, fastest, and cheapest for the market) of the unurbanized villagers and the poor (both materially and spiritually). To observe this place, one must become invisible and separate the colors.
Digital Photograph,
30cm x 18cm

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