MENU

About the Oda / O-da Exhibition

0
2554
0
Essay
Ahmet Öner Gezgin
* Oda/o-da exhibition, exhibition catalogue I have been an educator for 30 years. It has been 30 years since I was an assistant at the Academy, as it was then called, or with its current name, the Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts. As someone who triggered the times in the 80s when people who worked in photography split into camps, at a time when art and photography met but yet bitterly criticized each other, as someone who contributes and pushed for development and implementation of the period’s infrastructure I aimed to create a free environment, where everything that is forbidden in the name of photography, is done, and my students receive a self-aware, sensitive, tolerant and enthusiastic education, valuing modernity, innovation, individuality in the direction of their personal tendencies and production-oriented creative, structured on an academic solid foundation but not prescriptive, strict or conservative. I met countless people in this long-time period; among them, nine young people who will be young educators of the future are exhibiting their photographic expressions today within the frame of the concept of oda/o-da that have different meanings. The work shown in the exhibition catalog and displayed at exhibitions can be carried to the meaning […]
Read More ›

The Destiny of Photography within the Context of Art in the 2000s

0
2989
0
Essay
Ahmet Öner Gezgin
* This essay was presented as paper at the 6th Photography Symposium organized by AFSAD (Ankara Photography Artists Association) from 18th – 20th October 2002, with the same title and was included in the book of abstracts. This essay compares the concept of photography as an art form with the changes in science and technology in so far as its status as a means and an end alongside a debate on present and future societal influences on the artist. Though I may not succeed in deciphering the destiny of photography in this century of ultra modern slavery under instruments void of the sacred flame that bore the human spirit, I will use this method to put forward my own opinions on the matter. A new century is bound to bring about ideas of change. Even the words “twenty-first century” allude to a departure from the good and the bad of what came before. The last 20-30 years of the past century had gone by amid discussions of modern, post-modern globalization. This had been a time when the sinful was brought front and center, and the dawn of the new age was inevitable. But what would this new era be like? Reflecting on […]
Read More ›

Photography from the Republic to Present / 1923-1995

0
3419
0
Essay
Ahmet Öner Gezgin
* Professorial Dissertation, Istanbul. The post-1980 part of this research article is published under the title of “Post-1980 Photography in Turkey” in the Post-Republic Communication Encyclopedia, 12. Vol. Istanbul, Pg.531-535 Introduction A historian, who attempts to evaluate post-Republic photography in our country, faces a number of specific problems. One of these, perhaps the most important, is the fact that the historian lacks a written source where the communication of the historian with other branches of past-oriented plastic arts is established in the dimensions of time and movements; even if there is such a source, its reality and value are also doubtful. Observations and examinations that are so little in terms of quantity reveal the post-Republican photography movement as a succession of successful revolutions as per its source. Whereas, if the developments and the facts in the process would have been examined with analytical methods, very few people could allege that progress has been made in terms of photography. Another problem is that the historian, trying to provide an objective itemization of a period by chronological sorting, either immediately attempts to be a critic or conforms to other criteria, which are entirely non-historical. In my opinion, this is one of the most […]
Read More ›

A Famous World Photographer in Istanbul:

August Sander’s ‘People of the 20th Century’ Exhibition

0
3224
0
Essay
Ahmet Öner Gezgin
* Arredamento Decoration Magazine, Boyut Publishing Group, Istanbul, April 1995, Issue: 69, Pg. 123 – 124 The August Sander (1876-1964) exhibition, which was held as part of the framework of the 112. Anniversary of the foundation of Mimar Sinan University with the contributions of the Istanbul German Cultural Center, on March 31, 1995 at the Mimar Sinan Hall, from the chronological point of view, can be considered as catalyst for our environment lacking production, maintaining unfruitful conflicts over the past decade. The most distinguishing feature of 1920s – 1940s is that the First World War had ended and the Second World War had begun. As an inevitable consequence of the economic, social and cultural collapse experienced in these two decades, some photographers, in a moralistic perspective, went ahead towards the issues where heavy social truths are expressed. Others concentrated on working in a realistic and analytical way, in accordance with the definition of a scientist. The portrait photographs of August Sander, starting in 1911 and pursued until 1952, the focal point of which was constituted by people living in different social strata during the period between the two world wars, far from being mere nostalgic memories, are indicators of impartiality […]
Read More ›

Paper on the 2nd Student Work Exhibition on Experimental Photography

0
2559
0
Essay
Ahmet Öner Gezgin
* Sanat Çevresi Magazine, April 1992, Issue: 162 The second “Experimental Photography Student Works Exhibition”, the first of which was held in December 1989, is open for viewing at the Mimar Sinan University (MSU) Osman Hamdi Bey Exhibition Hall between 08-22 April 1992. The exhibition opens on April 08, 1992, Wednesday, at 16.30. The second exhibition consists of approximately 50-60 black / white print and color print work by 27 students who followed the Experimental Photography discipline during the 1990 and 1991 academic years. One of the most important features of the second exhibition is the project realized by the participation of 8 students wherein the “The Reality Dimensions of Photography” are scrutinized. The project consists of black / white prints of 8 self- portraits in true human dimensions (1:1). The 1:1 prints within the scope of the project are in harmony with the objective structure of the locations they are in, at the exhibition hall. The exhibition is designed and realized by the MSU Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of Photography Experimental Photography discipline academic staff, Assoc. Prof. Ahmet Öner Gezgin. Paper on the “Experimental Photography 2nd Student Works Exhibition” Exhibition: 08-22 April 1992, MSU Osman Hamdi Bey Exhibition […]
Read More ›

Photomontage / 2

0
2409
0
Essay
Ahmet Öner Gezgin
* İFSAK, Photograph / Cinema Magazine, Issue: October 14, 1987 Although the history of photomontage extends as far as William Henry Fox Talbot ¹, its emergence as artistic trend and its personification coincide with the early 19th century. In that century, Photomontage reached peak point with Raoul Hausmann (1886-1971), George Grosz (1893-1953), John Heartfield (1891-1961), Hannah Höch (born 1889), El Lissitzky (1890-1941) et el, also influenced Futurism and Surrealism together with its extension, the Bauhaus School, the art movements of the time. From the artists of this group, especially Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946) and Herbert Bayer (born 1900) are known as the masters of photomontage of the time. The modern graphic and painting art, that photomontage took under its influence and added a new personality, open their doors to the surrealistic field with Max Ernst in 1920. In this period, we see that graphic design is used in combination with photographic images in photomontage. The photograph, which is the basis of surrealist work separated by a harder aesthetic understanding than the Dadaist’s complex and soft aesthetic structure understanding, is of documentary quality and reflects a cross section of reality. The surrealistic thought is based on this infrastructure. ¹ W. H. Fox […]
Read More ›