Your name
Eyhan Çelik
Place of birth
Ceylanpinar
Place where you live now
Istanbul
3 words to describe you
Curious, Warrior, Free Soul
Why do you take pictures?
Frankly, I didn't decide that, it evolved spontaneously. I think the creative process of production is a way to relate to the universe. Along this path, I pursue the expression of multi-time images that contain the past, present, and future. I try to convey the inter-time description of the traces that form in me mentally, spiritually and physically to the plane of the image, closing my eyes and trying to see with the heart. The state of being in search is often triggered by my intuition and seeks its meaning. In a dialogue between Janouch and Kafka in Camera Lucida, Janouch says, “the necessary condition for the image is to see,” Kafka's response is that “we take pictures of objects to get them out of our minds… My stories are a way for me to close my eyes.” I guess the reason I take pictures too is to try to get rid of what's in my mind and heart.
Where do you get your inspiration?
I think there is no clear answer. Generally, I stick to "moments" I find while I am thinking about it. My photographs are the productions of that trigger moment. Generally, I am inspired by life, which is standing in front of our eyes. While I'm walking through the streets, the people I come across and their dialogues, their behaviors, …sometimes even the third page of newspapers and street reports can be my inspiration. I like to focus on people. "Is there any image behind another image?" The people make me ask this question. I am impressed with poems. Some poems are timeless for me. I think cinema is the universe that makes me continue taking photographs. The storytelling in my photographs, I think consists of a curiosity from photography and cinema that I try to stretch towards each other.
For Ready or Not, Here I Come! I can add my mother, who is the most important inspiration in this project.
Who are your influences?
The photographers who come to my mind first are Martin Parr, Roger Ballen, Diane Arbus, Duane Michals, Weegee, Jan Saoudek, Mary Ellen Mark, and Nan Goldin. From contemporary artists: Lawrence Weiner, Andy Warhol, and Carl Andre. From painting: Edouard Manet, Jan Van Eyk, Pieter Bruegel, Amedeo Modigliani, Yüksel Arslan, Fahrelnisa Zeid. They are known as musicians but I think they are mystic poets; like David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, and Bob Dylan. Writers: William Blake, Gary Snyder, Edgar Allan Poe, William Shakespeare, Charles Baudelaire, Anton Çehov; In Turkey minor literature representatives are Bilge Karasu, Şule Gürbüz, Pelin Buzluk. There are countless film makers among them are some in Turkey who impressed me with their films: Reha Erdem, Zeki Demirkubuz, Onur Ünlü, Ali Kemal Çınar, Pelin Esmer, Yeşim Ustaoğlu, Senem Tüzen. These are the names that I remember in the first moment from the countless names.
What determines the subject matter you choose?
The subject and space I focus on in my photos complete each other and are parts of an equivalent configuration. I can tell you that a lot of dynamics came into play for me before I trigger the shutter. I don't look for an image outside, I intuitively try to find the expression of traces, memories, experiences that swarm into my mind and, that I don't know what it looks like or what it means. Concepts and meanings are fabricated much later because we make up the meaning. For me, the main thing is to determine under what circumstances I rely on the photographic reality that intuitively arises through the camera. It heralds me a personal way of trying to understand myself. This process I mentioned applies to a single photo, for a holistic project, the process has a more comprehensive and long-term system. I can say that the methodology I follow varies according to the structure and internal dynamics of each project, but I can talk about a common track for the process before any project appeared. When an idea arises, a problem appears with that idea because the idea has no expressive counterpart. When this idea travels through my mind, I look for ways to be alone with it and question what triggered the idea.
What impact would you like your art to have?
I am not one of the romantics who believe they can change the world with their art. With no doubt, art has a spell. At first because of its nature art is a politic. Once you start dreaming no one has any power to interfere with it. It’s a kind of spell higher than authorities. Art is a form of resistance. The resistance contains hope. The critics and philosophers like to speak about the end of art but I can say that making art is one of the acts of self-creation and it maintains its charm. It’s a bit like of love-hate relationship in me.
What artwork do you never get bored with?
It’s a difficult question. For responding to this question I think we have to go to the day that I will take my last breath. Joking apart! If I am responding as the person I am today it can be a memorial tomb for Walter Benjamin made by Dani Karavan.
Is there anything you want to add?
Work of the eyes is done, now
Go and do heart-work
on all the images imprisoned within you; for you
overpowered them: but even now you don’t know them.
Rainer Maria Rilke, “Wendung”
