Ayazma Project

Ayazma is one of the dozens of regions in Istanbul that got its share of the so called urban renewal projects. This is the story of 15 families who have been effected by such enforcements which involve human rights infringements and no architectural regulations. The 11 families who lived in Ayazma (Istanbul) had to build concrete huts with their own hands from the remaining debris after the demolitions, because the government did not provide council houses for them to live in and they had nowhere else to go. As a photographer on site, I witnessed an important portion of the process during this long running project. I lived together with the families in their huts to understand how it really feels, what their problems really are. When I went back home with the photographs that I had taken, it really disturbed me to see that the photographs had a "happy despite everything" mood, when in reality there was so much trouble and worry. Of course that wasn't a bad thing, but still it veiled the truth. So I photographed the families at night in front of their huts using a harsh light. For the last step of the project, I stepped back entirely and gave the cameras to the residents of Ayazma. Using these one-shot cameras, they took photographs of their lives amongst the ruins without any aesthetical concerns. So they actually did what I wanted to do in the rawest way possible, which I think resulted in the series' most characterful photographs.