Through Faded Souls

As a photographer, I have been capturing the migration of the Kurdish Alevi peasants who settled in Eastern Anatolia for over a decade. Through my visits to the abandoned villages of the migrating Kurdish Alevi peasants, I have observed the symbolic and ritualistic objects that they leave behind are left in the belief that they shall protect the house and the village in continuum. My photos have focused upon these symbolic objects. Moreover, in Alevi mysticism, place is the centre of all things; man comes and goes from that place. I have associated this belief with the migration phenomenon. Migration forces man to leave one’s place and be left placeless. My photos portray this concept through the depiction of the symbolic and ritualistic objects. This photography project is an emigration study based on a person-place relationship. In colorful photos you will see some abandoned places and some mystic objects which are related to life. In black and white photos you will see some old people living in those places.