Family Album

FAMILY ALBUM The series of photographs found and saved at the epicenter of the Turkish earthquake, Antakya. The images which have been gently wrapped up in Turkish fabric display not only collective trauma of the Turkish nation but also healing process.

On February 6, 2023, two strong earthquakes of magnitude 7.8 and 7.5 occurred in Turkey. The disaster claimed more than 50 thousand lives.

I arrived to the epicenter of the earthquake, the city of Antakya on the same day and began to document the events. The city was completely demolished by the powerful tremors. Eventually, I remained there for 2 months.

One day whilst taking pictures of the rescuers working on the rubbles I discovered a family picture. It was lying on the road, covered in dust, with shoe marks and many scratches on it. The edge of the photo was burned. I decided to leave it on the road. Later on I found more pictures of the unknown people who became the victims of the tragedy but also left them where they were. I did not know the people on the photographs but the finds really touched me.

A week later I witnessed how locals were putting these photos in the fire together with the old newspapers and magazines to warm themselves up in the cold evening. I also witnessed how excavator destroyed several family albums whilst clearing the rubbles. That was the moment when I decided that I had to save these photographs and started collecting them.

When I got back home I carefully wrapped the photos up in the traditional Turkish fabric and rephotographed them. I wanted to be as gentle as possible with these memories which shouted about the fragility of a human being's life in the hands of the powerful and unpredictable nature. The present series displays not only collective trauma of the whole Turkish nation but also the healing process which will take time.