Can Yucel

Biography:
Can Yucel who is from İzmir was born in 1986. After he had completed his secondary and high school in Izmir Ozel Turk College, he graduated from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Photography Department in 2011. He has continued his master degree studies at the same department since 2014. As he works on documentary photography and time-lapse video, he has attended many exhibitons and shows with his works. He has won 13 first and second prize at the national photography contest. He lives in Izmir and continues his professional photography career.

Exhibition: Leaving Behind
Parting is painful. After some separation the place we have left stands alone for years. And over time it buries in a deep loneliness and starts to disappear quietly.

Sometimes you feel it in your heart. A lover you leave or losing someone close to you, these gives exactly the same feeling. Your heart dries and breaks down slowly.

Especially that if this breakup is forced to; the place you leave behind is your home, past, friends, childhood, youth… Actually you are leaving yourself. You are forced to be someone else, forced to be people of another world. And while you are sinking into this misery the only thing you can bring is a baggage full of memories. It’s all that you can’t leave behind.

These photographs were taken in abandoned Greek villages in Izmir which had been left during the population exchange period. In this work it is aimed to touch pains of Turks and Greeks who forced to exchange and left their homes permanently due to the collapse of Ottoman Empire.

This post is also available in: Turkish