Gulgun Gunal | 5 September 2022
Photography Project part 1
Daughters & friendships
⌈Su⌋
Congratulations, you have “Su”!
Having a daughter means that from the day you hold her in your arms, she will fill your sleep and your life with delicacy, detail and tenderness.
The day she was born, I stopped being my mother’s (actually my father’s) daughter and became my daughter’s mother. That day a new life began for both of us…
Your bond with your daughter will be so strong and special that people will know you are mother and daughter at a glance.
“A daughter is both a copy of her mother and a completely different and special version of her mother.”
My Daughter’s Friends & Friendships
Thanks to my daughter’s “firsts” (That’s one of her contributions to me!) I am also experiencing my own firsts. I watch as if in slow motion how a friend is made, how those tiny seeds of friendship are planted for the first time. Sometimes with tears in my eyes, sometimes with surprise, sometimes with increased awareness…
I became aware of things I had never thought about before, such as her first smile, her first word, her first steps, meeting a cat for the first time, smelling a flower for the first time, and now I observe how friendships are formed.
As I got older, I thought about how people started to be picky, how they categorize people and how they moved away from this purity.
Do you remember your best friend when you were five years old? If so, have you kept in touch? If the answer to all these questions is “Yes!”, first of all, I would like to congratulate you.
Thanks to Su’s sweet friendships, I am in a good mood now: Babyhood friendships; Dilan, Utku, then school, university, work and new friendships she welcomed into her life…
My daughter & her close friendships
Hidden within your name is a SPECIAL meaning
Some people naturally form strong connections with others, such as my daughter. Her name is “Su”. “Su” means water. Water is important for many reasons. Water is a limited resource, and access to clean, safe water is essential for good health and well-being.
In short, water is important because it is necessary for life and plays many important roles in the body and in everyday activities.
In this regard, perhaps many of its attributes are derived from its name.
Just a small note:
There was a shortage of water in Istanbul at that time. I named her “Su” to be a source of abundance. Another reason is that the daughter of my favorite poet, Can Yücel, was also named “Su”.
She’s open and approachable to her close friends. She’s really a good listener and shows genuine interest in friends.
We all know, people often appreciate and value friendships with those who make them feel heard and understood. That’s Su!
I don’t know how, but she has friendships going back to kindergarten, unlike me. She encouraged me! I thought I could convey her and her friendships through photographs; their chats, their discussions, their laughter…
Maybe one day I’ll have the chance to meet the mothers of my daughter’s friends and take pictures of them all together.
So, I know that this group is made up of friends who trust their promises, who answer the phone when it rings in the deepest moment of sleep, who run to your side with all the positive and negative experiences and memories they have had.
How lucky they are compared to those who try to share their loneliness through the internet!
The secret of a good life & Friends
Aristotle defines friendship as the secret of a good life and the most valuable thing you can have. Despite having all kinds of opportunities in the world, people who do not have friends do not enjoy living.” he said it well. This group of friends enjoys life.
“A good friend is like a four-leaf clover: hard to find and lucky to have.” - Irish Proverb