laleper aytek

Laleper Aytek was born in Istanbul in 1960. Becoming interested in photography in the early days of her university studies, she bought her first dark-room in 1980 and started to shoot and learn black/white printing techniques. She was encouraged by the inclusion of one of her photos in the short-list jury in one of the rarest photography competions (1st.Young Photographers Competition by The Yıldız University) she contested in 1985.

She graduated from the Bosphorous University (Department of Economy) in 1985 and the following year left for Norway (University of Oslo) with a scholorship of the Norvegian government to get a masters’ degree in “social economics”. She aspired to become an academician in those days.

She participated in a photography exibition with 4 photographers from Turkey (Emine Ceylan, N. B. Ceylan, Cem Cetin and Sarkis Baharoglu) organised at the Oslo Town Hall in 1987. As she discovered that her passion for photography was growing each day, she decided to become a photographer at the end of her 5 years’ stay in Norway.

In 1991, turn back to Turkey. She had decided to make photography professionally and opened her studio at Cihangir in Istanbul and she started to work as a free-lance advertising photographer.

From 1987 on, she had 11 solo exibitions and participated in 19 group exhibitons.

Her first exhibition called, “Details” took place at the Galerie Treppenhaus, Duisburg, Germany, in 1991. Her first solo exibition in Turkey called, “Photography Questions the Past” opened in 1994 at the unique Women’s Library of Turkey, situated in an historical building at the Fener district of Istanbul. She also worked as a volounteer for the same Library and created a women artists’ diatheque between 1991 and 1996. Between 1991-1998, she also worked as a photography editor for the History Foundation and the Iletisim Publication House, while continuing her professional work as an advertising photographer. She participated in numerous seminars, public debates, TV programs on issues concerning photography and was a jury member of many photography competitions.

In 1996 she got familiarised with digital photography while working for Ağackakan Film & Photography Agency and in 1998 she initiated the digital photography studio of Metro Cash& Carry Turkey where she assumed first, the responsibility of directing the department of photography and later on the departments of advertisment and marketing.

In 2002 she left Istanbul to live in Bodrum, at the Medditerranean Coast.

She is a member of the Professional Advertisment Photographers’ Association (PTFD) since 1991 and she declined the offer of becoming a member to other associations, for she believed that in Turkey, “all sorts of unionisation end up in uniformity”.

Since 2002, she is regularly writing about photography in a column called “pyramite” in the bimonthly Photography Magazine, Geniş Açı, and she also publishes her views on photography on a web site (www.fotograf.net) in a blog called “Red”.

She wrote about her experience of moving from Istanbul to a distant shore in a book called, “Voluntary Exiles To The Sea Shore”, (The life stories of 24 women who escaped from “madding crowd” and decided to settle in the Eagean and Mediterranean coasts told/written by themselves) published in 2004 by Bilişim Publc.

In 2005 was published a book gathering her thougths on photography: “Photography of Her Own”(Bilişim, Istanbul). In this book which is a collection of her articles published on photography since 20 years, she defends the idea that, photography is an individual and lonely experience which is the combination of “the eye, the heart and the brain, working in unity”, paraphrasing Henri Cartier-Bresson. She says that this book is a testimony to the in-depth process of knowing one-self and discovering one’s own truth. “I believe that more is less, and vice versa and the most difficult thing is to be true to your inner-self”. “And looking to one’s-self , like photography, reveils many sentiments that one was not aware of before. A true internal journay requires to discover, and to face these inner emotions”. She believes like the Italian photographer Mario Giacomelli that, “if you have anything to say, even if nobody cares about what you say, you go and say it…” And she finds in practicing photography, not only by taking pictures, but also by thinking and writing about it, the courage of going deeper in her inner-self, which she believes is one of the ways of being a real photographer.

Solo Exhibitions
2003
“Close”, Epsilon Art Gallery, Bodrum, Turkey.
“Close”, Fotoğrafevi, İstanbul, Turkey.
“From Shadows and Afterwards”, HadiGari, Bodrum, Turkey.
2002
“From Shadows and Afterwards”, İletişim Photographers Gallery, İzmir,
Turkey.
1998
“Waves”, İletişim Photographers Gallery, İzmir, Turkey.
“Waves”, Mavi, Bodrum, Turkey.
1996 “In The Middle of Lonliness”, Gezievi, İstanbul, Turkey.
1995 “In The Middle of Lonliness”, İletişim Kitapevi Fotoğraf Galerisi, İzmir, Turkey.
1994
“Photography Asks For The Past”, Women’s Library, Fener, İstanbul, Turkey.
1991
“Details”, Westdeutsche Landesbank, Ahlen, Germany.
“Details”, Galerie Treppenhaus, Stadtbibliotek, Duisburg, Germany.

Group Exhibitions
2005
“Çarşı-Pazar-Etki”, MarinArt’05, Karada Marina Çarşı, Bodrum, Turkey.
(curator: Zerrin Ulusman).
“KarmanÇorman”, Artists Living in Bodrum, Epsilon Gallery, Bodrum, Turkey
(curator: Lon Briet).
2004-2005
“Those who live with photography”, Collection exhibition of
Fotografevi, Bahçeşehir University, Gallery B, İstanbul, Turkey.
2004
“Black&White Turkish Photography”, St.Martins Gallery, London, England,
(corator: Vehbi Koca)
2003
“Meeting with The Women Photographers”, AFAD, Adana.
“40 Boxes, 40 Interpretations”, Enstallation exhibition with 40 artists of Bodrum, Turkey.
Defne, Gümüşlük, Bodrum.
Epsilon Galllery, Bodrum.
Eklisia, Gümüşlük, Bodrum.
2002
“Open Door Days”, An group exhibition with selected 30 photographers fromTurkey, EU Center, Strasbourg, Switzerland (curator: Engin Özendes).
“The Dig”, An exhibition with 50 photographers from Turkey, Pamukbank,Photography Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey (curator: Engin Özendes).
1994
“Women Photographers of The Republican Period”, Vakıfbank Art
Gallery,Istanbul, Turkey. (curator: Seyit Ali Ak).
1992
PTFD (Professional Advertising Photographers Ass.) 3rd.Exhibition, AKM,
İstanbul, Turkey.
“Women Photographers”, Women’s Library, Fener, İstanbul, Turkey.
1991
PTFD (Professional Advertising Photographers Ass) 2nd.Exhibition, AKM,
İstanbul, Turkey.
1988 International Photo Contest Exhibition, Şişli Rotary Club, İstanbul.
1987
“Photography from Turkey”, Oslo Town Hall, Oslo, Norway.
“Photography from Turkey”, Lovenstad Cultural Center, Oslo, Norway.