I love observing life, just like a flâneur.
Snow: Winter’s way of reading her poem. As she reads it aloud, the words fall down to the earth.
January 2021, West Village
#shotoniPhone
A playfulness co-created by the nature & the built environment: ‘The sky above' on the ‘below’.
December 2021, Dumbo
#shotoniPhone
My lost AirPods
My AirPods strangely disappeared on my flight from Istanbul to New York on April 21st. I clung to the hope they were just resting in my backpack, but upon landing, the 'Find My' app spelled its magic and showed me that they were left at JFK.
Contacting the lost and found was a dead end. Then things got bizarre. My AirPods, apparently began their world tour.
Since that day, my Airpods have flown to Istanbul, Frankfurt, Dubai, Bangladesh and they'll probably be travelling the world in the coming months. I think they are stuck somewhere on the Turkish Airlines Airbus A330. I contacted the Turkish Airlines customer service but could not get a response. Hoping they'll hear me from here.
I’m somehow ok with this situation. My AirPods might be feeling a sense of freedom. Will they not miss me? I was giving them a personal space though. Were they not happy with my Spotify lists or tech podcasts? I’m sure they’ll miss the Brooklyn techno.
Farewell to both pairs. It was a pleasure to be together.
A flower far away from her nature
There it is! A flower is standing still on the balcony of an old building in Taksim, Istanbul.
A flower far from her nature, perhaps thinking about what she is doing between the antennas. Come, let's look at the world for a second through the eyes of the flowers on your balcony.
How does it feel like?
An ode to the projector
I encountered this projector at some house party in Williamsburg. I found myself appreciating projectors for creating joyful moments for our spaces.
”Dear P,
Thanks for bringing a pseudo-galaxy into the space. Thanks for the spectrum of colors and the energy you bring to the night. Thanks for having Daft Punk’s 1,000 lonely stars dancing all around the room and invite us to float in the ocean of dreams. Oh dear projector! We love you but we mostly do when it’s darker."
Note: 1,000 lonely stars is reference to Daft Punk ’s Instant Crush song.
How do we treat our luggage?
Luggages rarely have a chance to get out of our storage and see the world outside. While we travel, they take a vacation too. I began to think about the life cycle of the luggage on a day where I landed to Istanbul. I watched the airport ecosystem through my window. When I was watching, I asked myself; How well do we care about our luggage? From the moment of farewell in check-in kiosk, overhead bins or under seats their destiny is meant to be beaten, thrown, or just goin with the flow.
Interviews during the Pandemic
During the pandemic, I reached out to creatives from around the world to explore how this period impacted their creative processes. From a New Yorker cartoonist to a musician in Iceland to a creative house in Japan, I interviewed 10 people and captured their stories, also designed the graphics. Here is a glimpse of it.
A letter from the trees, leaves, and branches
My campus in Istanbul, founded in 1863 as the first American College outside of the States, had a unique nature and historic buildings preserved to this day. While I was walking to my classes, I was fascinated by how the leaves were changing their colors through the seasons. Upon graduating, I wrote a letter to the Alumni from the perspective of these leaves, as I wanted to give a voice to them. The letter and photos were exhibited at Homecoming 2023.
Here’s my friend Nisan, holding a bookmark made from leaves of various colors.
Dear Alumni,
We hope that we somehow got your attention along your walks in the campus in your student life.
Perhaps you had moments where you stopped for a second, breathed in and appreciated our calm, colorful and quiet presence. Sometimes it was with a change in our colors, sometimes it was with our blooming seasons, or with the help of our friend, the mighty wind we dropped a leaf in front of your way. Maybe we had times when we disappointed you with our big branches and leaves for clouding your Bosphorus view. Whatever we made you feel like, we were always there with you in your campus life and we will always be here even when you are gone.
We wanted to give you a warm welcome today with our changing colors which we believe to be symbols for our common respect for the diversity in our campus. Welcoming all with your differences.
With love,
Campus trees, branches and leaves.
I visited Ani, the city between the Armenia and Turkey, after seeing the Belgian artist Francis Alÿs’s short documentary, The Silence of Ani, at the 14th Istanbul Biennial during my Sociology of Visual Culture class.
The film sparked a deep curiosity in me to visit Ani, where my ancestors perhaps also have passed through. Ani was once a place where many cultures coexisted in peace. My hope is for a future where different cultures can live together in harmony.
After graduating in 2019, I pursued professional photography and captured behind the scenes moments at Petra, a coffee shop in Istanbul.
Here are some shots from my trip to Mexico.
A visit to the Bay Area
While studying at UCLA, I took up photography as a hobby and captured moments from LA Fashion Week.
I love listening to house, ambient, and techno. Outside my design related browser, you can find me exploring new music at the NTS Radio. Here are a few shots I captured during performances by some of my favorite artists.
