"Inklings"

Ömer Orhun's "timeless" photographs can be viewed at the Millî Reasürans Art Gallery from January 8th to February 2nd, 2008.

The photographs featured in the "Inklings" exhibition were taken by Ömer Orhun between 2003 and 2007. The artist began taking photographs as a diary of his journey when he went to Varanasi as someone "playing tabla" to take lessons. According to the artist, the photographs do not carry any message that would attempt to prove anything, any image, or any words. As Orhun puts it, "The point I understand will cause different perceptions in everyone. I try to take photographs that will leave different impressions, that can be watched."

The photographs in the exhibition are loaded with images directly related to daily life, including humans. Ömer Orhun's photographs give the impression of a strong photographic reality, making references to facts and stories with the abstraction effect created by distinctions of light, shadow, and color, rejecting facts and stories. In other words, he does not want to be merely a documenter of the present moment within the present moment. The artist explicitly states, "My 'quest' in photography is this. What I look for in others' photographs are not the subtexts or messages they give me. I don't look for understanding in photography. Because photography has a 'dangerous' side in quotation marks. Dealing with images means dealing with something that is both present and absent. You think those images are your proof, but they are not actually.

I believe this intersecting aspect of photography lies not in meanings but in feelings. My photographs are not those that draw attention to conceptual terms in verbal thinking. They are completely photos that put something wordless, primarily directed at my own feelings, from people's direct feelings. I am trying to learn this constantly, I am a student of it, and I am trying. I am after color; not the meaning contained in color. Our minds eventually turn our feelings into meanings even if we don't want to. I wish the viewer looking at not just my photographs but all photographs would do so without ignoring this."

Ömer Orhun was born in Istanbul in 1960. He graduated from the Department of Photography at Mimar Sinan University between 1978 and 1982, and completed his Master's degree in the Department of Museology at Yıldız Technical University between 1999 and 2001. He worked for Güneş and Cumhuriyet newspapers and taught at various universities. Currently an instructor at Yıldız Technical University Faculty of Art and Design, Ömer Orhun has participated in solo exhibitions such as "Friday-Saturday", "Either Independence", "Inside", "Nişantaşı", and "Silver Years" as well as group exhibitions like "Death=Death", "Twilight Notebook", "Bridge6", and "Chaos".

The exhibition at the Millî Reasürans Art Gallery can be visited from January 8th to February 2nd, 2008.