"The number of young photographers who are not affiliated with some gallery, who take part in group exhibitions, do exhibitions in their own right, who publish books but who are not widely known except for only a particular group of people, can be counted on the fingers of one hand."

"No way, they are at least a dozen, I am sure!"

 

The "Dozen" dossier began with that kind of an optimistic sentiment. As Orta Format, we noticed we haven't get to know enough young artists in Turkey. It is also an indicator that we, who see the magazine as a crucial part of our exploration, remain within the existing networks. On the other hand, the people we have met, encountered and those who did works that excited us during the time we started our exploration in photography, became known, appreciated and they came to display their works more easily.

Even though, we think there is a very restricted art environment in Turkey, it is also possible to argue that there are lots of networks within this environment, but they are restricted in themselves as well.

As we make our "Open Call"s permanently to go beyond those networks and invite people who are interested, it is not possible for us to take cover in and content ourselves with that. Maybe because of our cultural codes, it is open to question, we haven't receive much acceptation to our invitation. That is to say, our call still doesn't serve its purpose enough.

That is why we quit throwing stones from the glass house and set about our search. We added the names suggested by academicians, critics and photographers who have helped us to move forward to this day to people we know from the internet and those we heard of from various friends.

We have met a dozen of those people and talked about their works and their artistic practices. Some of the works are some's first, and others had some exhibition experience. Some consider photography as the sole way of conveyance, others use different mediums including photography. What they have in common is that they use photography as a narrative tool and they reflect their sincerity through their artistic practices.

We have no intention to call the people we cover here as "the best" or "future's stars" nor they are "outstanding" or etc. "A Dozen" is an update in which we cover young artists whose works we have become acquainted with and who excite us. The reason we make a dossier without covering any other subject, is to emphasize the importance of these acquaintances and to invite everyone to new explorations.

For us, everyone we cover in Orta Format is equally important; besides, those who responded to our call before like Oktay Orhun, Emin Enes Bahadır, Begüm Akın, Sevinç Çalhanoğlu, Shayman Tostakay and Ceren Kılıç, and people we will be covering in the next updates are worth a look just as the people in "A Dozen."

We hope to get to know and cover new people in our magazine. But we don't have to wait for their number to reach a dozen, and that would make us happier. So, our Open Call is still valid. Like we said, we quit throwing stones from the glass house and took the first step. We are waiting for the e-mails from those interested to meet us at ortaformat@gmail.com.

 

The editors of "A Dozen":

Begüm Akın

İpek Çınar

Tevfik Çağrı Dural

Şener Soysal