Hayal & Hakikat

Hayal & Hakikat (Dream & Fact) are made up of early 20th century archive images of prisoners taken from the photographic albums of Abdul Hamid II, the thirty-fourth sultan of the Ottoman Empire.

Abdul Hamid II was interested in crime fiction and photography, and shortly before decreeing an amnesty, convinced by a pseudoscientific quote in a police novel according to which “any criminal with a thumb joint longer than the index finger joint is inclined to murder”, the sultan ordered that all those convicted of murder should be photographed with their hands visible.

The photographs included in the Hayal (Dream) series show the hands of those who were given an amnesty, while Hakikat (Fact) shows prisoners chained and sentenced to death, with no amnesty. The Turkish artist Cemre Yeşil Gönenli has cropped out the faces in both series, thus avoiding re-identifying and blaming the protagonists. The contrast between the desire of some to be forgiven and the uncertainty of others at a possible conviction is reflected today, in times when repression and arbitrary arrests are still in force.

Hayal & Hakikat is a silent protest in favour of freedom of expression, as well as a tribute to all the people who have had to go into exile or been arbitrarily detained in Turkey.

Born in 1987 in Turkey, Cemre Yesil is a Turkish photographer and artist based in Istanbul. She has been exhibited and published internationally in prominent media such as The Guardian, ICP New York, British Journal of Photography, Colors Magazine, Istanbul Modern Museum or 6 mois, among others. Her work is included in the collections of the Houston Center for Photography, New York Library, Istanbul Modern Museum or RISD Library. Her book “Hayal & Hakikat” was the winner of PhotoEspaña 2021 Best Photography Book Award and was shortlisted in Paris Photo Aperture Photobook Awards 2021 and in The Historical Book Award in The Rencontres d’Arles 2021. Cemre currently teaches photography at Falmouth University and Bilgi University, works as a writer, curator and editor, and is the founder of FiLBooks, a publishing house and a space dedicated to photobooks in Istambul.

OUTDOOR EXHIBITION

6 HAYAL & HAKIKAT

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