Levent Karaoglu

Photography is neither a passion, nor a desire for me. I do not only believe in keeping such expressions off from our minds, but also rejecting all kinds of fanatical approach towards art.

Not being obliged to illustrate the beauty, we should occupy ourselves with narrating the stories intensively in photography; photography, for my part, is the instrument for narrating these stories. What is seen from the view finder is what the camera sees. What I present to the people is the story that I see, and would like to tell.

This is, in a sense, “to share the pain of others”, for my part:

“The imaginary affinity we establish with the pains inflicted to others, which we then watch in visions, reminds of a surreal connection between the people suffering afar and the privileged watchers, and this connection is one of the mystifications that forms our relationship with the power. The more we feel sympathy, the easier it becomes for us to feel blameless in the developments causing pain. Our sympathy is the announcement of not only our incapability, but also of our blamelessness.“ (Susan Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others)

Istanbul, Turkey

http://www.leventkaraoglu.com/