Turkish lens-based artist Ali Taptik’s “Wounds” series depicts a narrative between city dwellers and their environment. The artist’s work juxtaposes the anonymity of urban life with intimate personal experiences.
Inspired by the city’s organic nature, Taptik depicts the city as an organism, highlighting the raw impact of ruptures in it. These ruptures or disruptions may be tangible or intangible (coincidences, emotions, relationships), yet they always highlight the symbiotic relationship between the city and its inhabitants. The fatalistic inevitability evident in Taptik’s pieces harks back to his earlier “Kaza ve Kader” [Fate and Destiny] series. “Wounds” showcases the scars left behind by crises or traumas endured by city dwellers; it is by their scars and their experiences that they are defined. The resulting images are both beautiful and haunting.
Ali Taptık was born in 1983 in Istanbul, where he currently lives and works. Taptik graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at Istanbul Technical University and is an autodidact photographer. He is currently obtaining a Masters of Science in the History of Architecture at Istanbul Technical University. Taptik was a resident artist at the Krinzinger Projekte in Wien and the Villa Waldberta in Munich in 2010, at the Quarentine in Manchester and as part of the Liverpool Capital of Culture in 2008, and at the Atelier de Visu in Marseille in 2005 and 2010.
