Olgaç Bozalp: Gucci x Istanbul, 2016

“Olgaç Bozalp’s photographs are like Georges Simenon novels. They feature characters who appear to hold many secrets:
 one wonders whether they are what they seem. For Bozalp, the rift between how we present ourselves and how we are perceived by others hits close to home. When he traveled to Istanbul last year for a Gucci commission, Bozalp was aware of his reputation in London as a rising fashion photographer. Yet, he has steered his career toward more artistic and journalistic projects. He enjoys investigating and discovering his subjects and describes his work as reportage. This does 
not quite fit into the world of fashion photography, where brands and consultants, rather than people themselves, are the ultimate deciders of how a subject is framed. Bozalp wants his subjects
 to speak through their garments.

‘I don’t like dressing people up. I am okay with adding an accessory to their outfit, but that is about it,’ Bozalp says. And this provides us with the central dilemma and strongest quality of his work: in their authenticity—which is often coupled with the touch of a fashion stylist—Bozalp’s characters resist an orientalist representation of non-European subjects. But they are also fictions: they appear like fashion models with no interest in selling anything other than their mysteries. The more Bozalp desires to capture the truth of his subjects, the more fictional they appear to our eyes."—Kaya Genç, in Aperture Issue #228: “Elements of Style”

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