Istanbul Modern Photography Gallery hosts “Close Quarters” exhibition that focuses on contemporary photography in Turkey. The show gathers 18 artists selected by the Istanbul Modern Photography Advisory Board around the idea of creating a personal documentary. In the exhibition, individual photographs become part of an arrangement in the form of videos, installations, or prints, acquiring meaning within their unity.

“Close Quarters” is an unusual record of the personal and the ordinary. An exhibition in which artists focus on their own lives and the situations with which they come in contact rather than discovering remote places. Far from both documentary photography’s claim to neutrality and the constructedness of staged photography, the works in the exhibition trace personal narratives in an open sphere; like a minutely kept diary, the artists’ lives, close circles, and memories are materialized in photography. By opening the doors to different interpretations, the images use the power of ambiguity rather than an authoritative voice that dictates meaning. Among the details of everyday life emerges the charm of the ordinary and these images, which seem familiar, find new shape in other people’s stories.

Artists: Özgür Atlagan, Fatma Belkıs, Dilan Bozyel, Yusuf Darıyerli, Cemil Batur Gökçeer, Ege Kanar, Korhan Karaoysal, Metehan Özcan, Civan Özkanoğlu, Emir Özşahin, Muhitin Eren Sulamacı, Özlem Şimşek, Sinan Tuncay, Gözde Türkkan, Devin Yalkın, Begüm Yamanlar, Sarp Kerem Yavuz, Cemre Yeşil

Head of Photography Department: Sena Çakırkaya

Photography Advisory Board: Merih Akoğul, Orhan Cem Çetin, Murat Germen, Sıtkı Kösemen