reposting one of two interview features to wrap up the year with @flolondon_ . had such a good time speaking to @yo_angiemk about my work on the visual representation of the Turkish diaspora in Germany. as Europe shifts back towards right-wing rhetoric, who gets seen, and how, feels more urgent than ever.
Turkey is one of the most ethnically diverse countries in West Asia, yet representation in Germany has long been reduced to a single image. If you’re not what’s often been labelled a “blackhead” or Schwarzkopf a racialised shorthand tied to the era of Turkish guest workers in the 80s these visual narratives may not reflect your lived reality. Still, they continue to shape public perception.
the work also looks at the gendered experience of otherness. women are frequently sexualised, while men are framed through tropes of aggression, criminality, or emotional restraint. i trace how these visual codes are formed, sustained, and where self-representation might interrupt them.
Some pictures I took as part of a zine I created and curated for my final MA project. Big love to the team 🌟🧿
PHOTO, CONCEPT @afr_a
CREATIVE DIRECTION @gizemkahra
MODEL @bismahbby
HMUA @naemikaempfer
STYLING @jana.grinchenko
“Borderlines interrogates the fraught question of belonging: Are you enough? German enough, Turkish enough – or perpetually caught in the tension of being too much of one to fully inhabit the other. This editorial navigates the liminal spaces of identity, where cultural inheritance and societal perception converge, creating a terrain both contested and unresolved. It is an exploration of the weight of expectation and the quiet resistance to being defined by borders, whether physical or symbolic.“
