Cities, Connectivity and Creativity

2011, Atif Akin, Istanbul, Turkey

Cities: Capitalism operates in cities through the categorization, classification and organization of massive amount of goods and services. Typology in photography is commonly used as a technique of observation of this massive phenomenon. Participants were asked to visualize an urban concept while creating a photographic typology. During discussions regarding the city and typology, students proposed concepts like typology of photography. This is like a derivative form of typology in photography. It is not the series of photographs of various content but rather the different forms of the same content that create the typology. For example, Galata Tower, as a touristic site and landmark in İstanbul, is photographed by thousands everyday. The same is differentiated by photographic techniques and light conditions. e concept is illustrated by students by taking the “same” photograph of the tower with different cameras and lighting settings. en the idea is extended to a visual survey on Flickr and series of photographs are picked from the website to underline connectivity through photography.

Connectivity: During the 1990s, İstanbul became a major node
in the transnational informal trade network between former Soviet Republics and Turkey. Hundreds of thousands of people from Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and other former Soviet Republics visited İstanbul every year for short periods of time in order to buy consumer goods (especially clothing) for resale in their homes. Laleli, a neighborhood on the historical peninsula of İstanbul, turned into a marketplace for the informal “shuttle trade.”

The Seventh-Kilometer Market is an outdoor market outside of Odessa, Ukraine. Founded in 1989 during Perestroika reforms, it is now possibly the largest market in Europe. Independent traders on the market sell goods at all price ranges, from authentic merchandise to cheap Asian consumer goods, including counterfeits of Western luxury goods. In the heydays of the shuttle trade, this market was the mirror of Laleli. Toll-manufactured textile in İstanbul, sold in Laleli, were served to the post-Soviet states through this market place.

The photographs in this part are taken on trips to both parts of this o -the-book shuttle trade. Photographs are chosen among the ones that represent the identity loss caused by the global trade activities. Some of the photographs underline this fact and connection with solid visual entries to the frames.

Creativity: is section exhibits photographs produced by students of the communication design department in the context of the course titled Photography Studio. During the classes, we witnessed students were not only learning photography techniques but also challenging the medium with the capabilities of new digital production tools. Photographs in this section are produced with various techniques and equipments where this process, mostly, complies with the cultural environment of their creators.

2011, Atif Akin, Istanbul, Turkey
2011, Atif Akin, Istanbul, Turkey
Atif Akin, 2011, Istanbul, Turkey
2011, Atif Akin, Istanbul, Turkey
2011, Atif Akin, Istanbul, Turkey