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« READ GEORGE GEORGIOU Q&A PART 1
Many images capture fleeting moments in the life of your subjects. Yet the outstanding composition of your shots suggests detailed planning. How do you strike this balance?
GG: The approach I took evolved over time – I had been living in Turkey for nearly three years before I really started this project.
I was determined to focus on contemporary Turkey and not reduce the work to looking at exotic stereotypes of the country – a trap many photographers fall into when photographing Turkey.
Once I had identified the concept, I had to find the right visual language; the correct distance and emotion.
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| Click images to enlarge All photographs copyright George Georgiou 2010 |
Most of the work was shot over the autumn or early spring. This gave me a great light, very grey skies and a flat light, allowing the colours of the buildings to stand out and the project to hold together.
I have been shooting on the street for years, so capturing fleeting moments while keeping a strong compositional frame now comes fairly easy to me.
What do you want people to feel when they visit the exhibition or read the book?
GG: I was showing the work to some Nigerian photographers and asked them how they saw the new modern landscapes that are springing up all over Turkey. They wished Lagos would follow suit.
Someone from England might see them in a more negative light through their experience of high-rise council estates.
For sure, I would expect a different understanding from a Turkish audience; a greater understanding of the subtleties in the images.
I’m comfortable with all these perceptions. I’m trying to create a context that guides but doesn’t have a closure.
Hopefully, the viewer will want to find out more about Turkey.
There are over 100 images in the book. Are there any that, for you, sum up the story you are trying to convey?
GG: I have been moving away from the idea of the single image for some time now.
In a work like this, a single image tells you very little about the questions and issues I’m dealing with. That’s not to say I don’t have favourites or images that don’t have a lot of meaning for me.
The viewer will also identify with certain images that have nothing to do with my intention. This is, for me, the strength of photography. We create our own fictions.
The age of film cameras and darkrooms has given way to the age of digital cameras and Photoshop. Has anything been lost in the transition?
GG: Personally, I hated the hours in the darkroom, struggling to get a good print.
Digital photography has opened up photography to a lot more people. I also like the editing process and development of ideas that digital affords you.
At the end of the day it’s a technological development. It just depends what you do with it.
What advice would you give to a teenager determined to pursue a career as a photographer?
GG: The competition is fierce out there and it’s on an international level now. So you need to be obsessed and passionate and understand that it’s a long road that needs infinite patience.
• Visit George Georgiou’s blog: www.georgegeorgiou.net
UPDATE: Since this interview, George has been awarded a British Journal of Photography award, run by BJP in partnership with Nikon, which will support his ‘In the Shadow of the Bear’ project, focusing on the continuing influence of Russia on its former territories in Georgia and the Ukraine. More details on the British Journal of Photography website.
George Georgiou was speaking to Dan Mason
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