IFSAK Project: 226th Term Project Group
I was involved in a project that lasted for a year with a photography association (IFSAK) that I was a member of. It was a book by Orhan Pamuk who received the Nobel Prize and known worldwide, the name of the book is “My name is Red” and story takes place in the 1590s. I made a list from my perspective to turn the book into photography. Of course, I had to find something from 1590s. For example, I had find a tombstone. I had to find a miniature artist who was the subject of the book but is a profession that is disappearing in our country. After a the long research and thanks to my network in Istanbul, I found them all. I took approximately about 300 photographs and the association selected 4 of them that took place in the book.
Brief
My name is Red, is a novel by Orhan Pamuk, in which the story takes place in 1591, during the reign of Ottoman Sultan Murad III., a period of 9 days under snow in Istanbul. Palace calligraphers and miniaturists secretly make paintings with a Frankish influence for a book prepared by the sultan’s order. The main heroes of the book are Shekure, the daughter of the house, and her aunt’s son Kara, who falls in love with her. While high cost of living and fear prevails in Istanbul, the calligraphers and miniaturists in this house gather in the coffee houses and have fun listening to the stories told by the storytellers. Another feature of My Name is Red is that each character of the book speaks in their own language, and the dead and inanimate objects speak and tell the story of the book from their own perspective.
2018 My Name Is Red, 226th Term Project Group
Related scripts from the book for which my photographs were chosen:
… when I entered the city, I thought there was only death, then I also encountered love. But love, at that time, when I first entered Istanbul, was as distant and forgotten as my memories in the city.
… it was understood that the idea of eternal time in the hearts of calligraphers would be realized in painting, not in writing.
… we have seen the latest wonders that calligrapher Cemal wrote and left, but to dismiss the enemies of color and embroidery, who say that the main art is calligraphy, and embroidery is an excuse to highlight the line.
… I look back at your pictures to listen to that whisper; with a smile, I realize that the meaning changes with each turn and, how should I say, I attempt to read it again like a formal letter. Thus, when these layers of meaning line up one after the other, a depth that reaches far from the perspective of the Frankish masters emerges.
