You picked fashion photography as your area of expertise and you put really solid work out there. We know that you did your first photo shoot for Marie Claire in September, 2004. Although there is not even a 1.5 year period between then and now, your work seems to be the product of years of experiences. What do you think is the reason that you achieved professional work in such a short time?

In fact, I also cannot believe that only 1.5 years have passed, it seems to me like it has been 10 years. I have been asking this question to myself recently, and I am wondering how come I transformed so fast. Frankly, I did not find an exact answer but I am a self-confident person and I have certain goals. Actually it is not right to say that I have a ceratin goal, I determine short time goals instead of long term ones and I realize them one step at a time. The people around me say that this is the reflection of the accumulation o long years. I could not figure it out myself.

Your photographs have been published in the best selling fashion magazines in the country, sometimes your frames appeared on the covers of these magazines. What do you feel when you see your own work in magazine stands?

It is an amazing feeling, it actually is the best part of my job; seeing my work on magazine stands, on billboards, on rackets etc. I shot a boxer girl for the student campaign of Avea. After the commercial shoot I started shooting at midnight and it lasted about 45 minutes. After the shooting I picked two frames with the agency, I completed retouching right away and I submitted it. After two days I left another shoot, I was in my car on my way home and I saw my photographs on all billboards in İstanbul. At that moment I said to myself İstanbul was my exhibition now; I believe this example reveals how I feel.

You use a number of cameras and objectives that can meet any need. Is there any camera that you especially prefer or feel attached to? How do you evaluate the point that the dijital photography technology has reached and its future?

Actually it is more appropriate to say that there was a camera, I was a Canon freak and I was very unlucky then I turned to Nikon. I was so unlucky I could not even use the 3 new lenses that I had bought. Now I like to work with Hasselblad 503cw, because its sound and its viewfinder make you enjoy the shooting. About digital, I am an advocate but if I consider the sector that I am in, we photographers in Turkey are competing against time. The shoots and the campaigns have very short deadlines, of course there are several jobs that I can work on for long but it is always about catching up with the deadline so digital technology is inevitable. There is an ongoing analog vs digital debate, when I look at the two sided the ones who question the digital are conventional photographers who according to me do not know photoshop. Of course you have to process in digital, frankly you also process when you shoot a film too; the type of the film, the temperature of the bathing, its duration, card type etc. are also processing. I do not see a difference, a photographer can use either one but the inevitable thing is even the film producers nowadays are investing in digital.

You have worked with a lot of big names. Who do you want as your model mostly in the future?

There is no specific model that I want to shoot in the near future. But there are some brands. I would love to work with Dior Homme or Prada. I believe that I can do a good job, I find them closer to my style.

Do you feel as comfortable and free in outdoor shoots as you do in indoor?

They are two very different areas for me, both have their advantages and complications. The only thing that I don’t like is having to work in the studio when I shoot winter shots in summer and vice versa because of production troubles. It is hard to develop frames by working in the studio with limited budgets. For instance, the Sarar 2006 Summer collection was shot in front of a white wall in the studio but the audience couldn’t tell that it was a studio shoot. It is flattering but there were countless difficulties during and after the shoot.

What processes you put your photographs through? Can you share the softwares and the methods that you use in your retouches?

Sometimes I do not process at all but dominantly I use Photoshop and Capture One Pro, sometimes I use After Effects, Alias Wavefront Maya. As for methods, it is hard to explain because there is no specific method, it depends on the job and the photograph. Sometimes the photograph is re-created and sometimes it is picked and sent to printing.

You are also interested in film production apart from your identity as a photographer. Do you have the ideal to shoot a huge film that you direct?

I do not have an ideal of becoming a director, I just enjoy working as the director of photography from time to time. Shooting films is a different joy but for me it has limits. Film and photography are very different areas. In photography you work with a small but concentrated staff while film is crowded yet concentrated. You need experts to work in a film and Turkey lacks a lot in this area. Photography is ten years ahead of films. I love to have control, so films are more challenging because it is impossible to conrol everything. Sometimes I miss it and work in commercial films but at the end of the day I run back to photography.

Do you see yourself as someone who realized his goals?

Yes and no. Yes, because I determined a goal for myself in Ankara a year ago and now I am accepted as one of the best fashion photographers. No, because I am raw and I am just in Turkey for now. I shot a lot of campaigns in one year but none of them were international.

Some art critics and even some photographers argue that photography is not art. What is your opinion on the issue?

I do not find myself equipped enough in this argument because I cannot call myself a photographer. Moreover I serve to the advertisement and fashion industry. My photography have a life of 6 monts, or one year at most. They are meant to be consumed. I am not a photography artist and I do not intend to be. I like to shoot consumable photographs but this doesn’t mean that my job is easy because achieving continuous creativity in such a dynamic area is a challenge. I have been working even on weekends for the last 3 months and I do not have the luxury to repeat myself. However, if creating is involved in any kind of job I find this debate irrelevant.

It is generally more attractive and easier for the photographers to be behind the camera rather than standing in front of it. What do you feel when you are in front of the camera? Do you ever shoot yourself?

It is definitely easier to stay behind but everyday I realize that being in front of it caanot be that hard because as the photographer you give the idea of how the model should stand, the emotion and the expression. If you can do these right, you get to be comfortable in front of the camera. I feel very comfortable with it for a year now. I never shot myself, shooting yourself and someone else shooting you are two very different things.

Can you explain the reflection of two great inspirations, music and cinema, in your work? What kind of music do you listen to and which directors do you feel close to yourself in terms of visual conception?

I don’t know if cinema has an effect because cinema is a process for me during which I empty my mind for 2 hours. I try to stay away from movies which challanges my mind. But I think the effect of music is great because lately bands and fashion are interrealted...Dior Homme prepares collections by getting inspiration from numerous bands and then it dresses these bands. There are a lot of examples like this. We listen to music while shooting; the reflection is different when we listen to Depeche Mode or The Strokes. I generally listen to indie rock groups like Maximo Park, Franz Ferdinand, Strokes, Razorlight, Bloc Party, Interpol. I like to shoot two-dimensional photograps now that my roots are graphic design roots in terms of visual understanding. My photographs are no different than graphic design according to me, I love to use the place as the reference and sometimes using the model as the reference to the place. I lean on the definitions on the frames that I shoot...I don’t use it at all in my photographs but I feel close to the Bauhaus ecolé.

The theme of our third issue is “old‿. What does this word remind you of? Can you tell us about some photographs that comes to your mind when you think about your childhood?

-Old firstly and directly reminds me of yesterday. It is interesting that nothing but a few family pictures come to my mind from my childhood. This question actually made me curious about how come nothing comes to my mind; it is probably because I had no interest in photography in my childhood.