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I have always loved photography.
I remember from an early age spending hours gazing on my fathers old LP album covers.
After briefly flirting with the idea of being an archeologist, I decided to focus on visual
arts. I have recently finished my masters in documentary
photography at Sydney College or Arts. My fascination with Australias convict
past started when I was commissioned to photograph Anna, a convict descendant high school student
for a heritage publication. So when I embarked my masters degree,
I decided to document direct descendants of convict settlers for my masters project.
This also enabled me to combine two of my
long term fascinations photography and history. I have always been curious about other civilisations,
in particular how people lived in the past perhaps because I grew up in Istanbul, surrounded
by amazing old architecture and artefacts. Like most migrants, I was not very familiar
with Australias convict history. So, when I started researching I was actually
quite surprised to discover that more than 160,000 convicts, to me an overwhelming number,
were transported to Australia. Most were convicted of petty theft.
Stolen items varied from shoes to fabrics, coats to pocket watches, purses to sheep.
I decided to photograph the descendants with
a representation of the item stolen by their ancestor.
I have photographed about 45 descendants mostly in their own homes or at a place that
is relevant for their crime. I aimed to capture the proud, prosperous and
colourful lives of the descendants in a way in contrast to the hardship that their ancestors
endured and perhaps underlining the you know presumably positive effect the displacement
significant number of people had on their descendants lives today.
The people I have photographed came from a wide cross-section of Australian society.
I believe the project for the first time not only created a visual connection with
this amazing group of people but also a visual connection with their past through the objects.
So I think the project is mostly also about connecting. I believe the knowledge of ones
past develops a stronger sense of belonging and also sheds light to who we are.
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