A RECYCLED LIFE: NYLON HOUSES

The term "recycling" refers to the protection of natural resources, energy conservation, and making a healthy investment for the future. The re-use of recyclable materials such as chemical wastes, glass, plastic, paper, aluminum, batteries, engine oil, organic and electronic scraps, concrete, iron, fabric, wood, or metal in production processes both reduces the waste amount and contributes to the economy and thus is considered an investment for the future. Recycling is like a fantasy today for environmentalist activists and aware world citizens, the importance of which is not clearly comprehended. However, recyclable materials do have an urgent use in some people’s lives. Within the framework of the urban transformation projects, the Gypsy citizens who are expelled completely to the suburban areas today, live in unprotected houses like sheds and resolve their insulation issues mostly by old and used materials such as nylon, iron sheet, felts, or blankets. Looking at the tiny Gypsy houses located in Urla-İzmir, the use and the function in human life of the recyclable materials can be understood. The “A Recycled Life 1: Nylon Houses” photography project demonstrates the significance of the use of recyclable materials, particularly nylon, by the Gypsy citizens living in nylon houses in Urla. The most important recycling of the photo shootings performed in May 2010 is the action of smiling and looking with hope to the “hold on to life" efforts of the people who are exiled from the system due to their natural existence and genuine lifestyles. .......... The project was featured at the Arles Photography Festival in 2013.