Our Identities began with questions I am often asked.“Are you gay?”, “Are you Muslim?”, “Are you Turkish?”, “Are you Alevi?”, “Are you political? ”These are questions I don’t ask anyone, but others do not hesitate to ask me. I didn’t grow up in a home like that. We didn’t talk about these topics with my family. We didn’t question anyone’s beliefs, orientation, or political stance.
Everyone’s life was their own. No one interfered in another’s private space. That’s why these questions feel foreign, intrusive, and imposed from outside to me. I believe defining people through such questions is more about categorizing than understanding. As a photographer, I found a way to express this discomfort through art.I chose 11 questions I frequently encounter. I represented each with a scene, a costume, and an expression. 11 questions, 11 photographs, 11 identities.
These photographs are less of an answer and more of a stance. They say, “Don’t ask who I am, see me as I am.”Our identity may or may not exist. It may change or remain the same. It’s not anyone’s place to know or judge. We are human first.This project I call Our Identities is a look at the labels people try to stick on me. In each photograph, I made these questions visible through my own body but did not answer them. Because I know every answer can turn into another box. Costume design and concept design by Şirin Eda Duman and lighting design by Mustafa Karakoyun were more than support; we carried the visual and emotional weight of this process together. Our Identities is not a judgment. It is an expression.Not to draw a line, but to remind how unnecessary lines are.
