Location: United States
Muge Karamanci was born in 1989 and lived most of her life in Istanbul, Turkey. She started university in Boston in 2006 and graduated Northeastern University with a dual major in communications and cinema in 2011. She has written, directed, produced and acted in her own short films. All five shorts were made between the years 2009-2011. Two of these movies are on her website and their names are: "Where's the Referee" and "Love: Unmasked". She incorporates her poetry into these films. She has two Turkish poetry books published; the first one was published in 2005 (Translated as: “Is this World Ours?”) and the second one in 2009 (Translated as: “Give me my Name”). She has completed the Post Bacc. program at the School of Museum of Fine Arts in 2013. She now lives in New York City where she is a contributing photographer for Citizen Brooklyn.
Website: www.mugekaramanci.com
My journey into art has started in Istanbul, Turkey with a non-visual art form: poetry. I have been writing poems since before I even knew how to write, and I have published two books so far. I believe that experience of mine to be the defining quality in my photographic art. My photography tends to be dark and mysterious, and the majority can be classified as surrealistic work. My different cultural background affects and inspires me, and what people go through emotionally, that they can feel so much in one day greatly interest me.
As for the themes in my photographs: I work with water a lot, trying to show the feeling of freedom, letting go, being trapped and helpless. However, water means freedom and purification, so I try to demonstrate that contradictory relationship. This deep connection I have with water, having lived on the sea while growing up and also being a scuba diver has found its way into my art.
Time is another theme in my photographs, and it is a big part of my everyday anxiety. Reflection of age, ticking clock of expectations, being emotionally young but otherwise feeling very old, the passage of time are some of the ideas that I explore.
To sum up, I connect water and time together in my photography showing what lies in my subconscious.
“Life Paused”
“Leaving”
“coming out”
“Self within”
“The Nightmare never left”
“Clock Dream II”
