Who are you? Ahmet Polat

Istanbul Modern Photography Gallery presented works by Ahmet Polat, the first Turkish-Dutch recipient of ICP’s (International Center of Photography) "Young Photographer" at the 22nd Infinity Awards.

Issues such as Turkish and Dutch identities, immigration, cultural diversity, segregation, cultural dilemmas and loneliness prompted Ahmet Polat, born in the Netherlands, to seek his origins and set him off to a personal quest for discovery. Consequently, photography became a tool for understanding life. While the young artist went through the process of questioning his past and recognizing his own cultural heritage, he began to grasp the importance of exploring and establishing similarities rather than differences in the world. He exposes reality not directly, but rather through certain abstractions. He mirrors lives in fragments and leaves the remaining pieces to the viewer to complete, thus handing him/her with the opportunity to become a part of that story and to look more intently for a more profound understanding.

Within the framework of "Who Are You?", Ahmet Polat combined his search for identity and heritage with an autobiographical narrative, thus presenting to viewers samples from various series he produced in the near past. These stories revealed the artist’s personal and professional journey from 1999 until today. Ahmet Polat’s selection of 82 photographs blended diverse topics, ranging from immigrants in Transvaal to the homeless in Tilburg, from the 1999 Marmara earthquake to images of high-society.

Curator: Engin Özendes