This interview is published on March '23 issue of
The Reader's House Magazine.  
Click image to see interview
on the magazine page.

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Generates a lasting look,  coupled with an  unblemished moment

Sema Özevin

Multi-Award Winning Photo and Video Artist 

AS TOLD TO BEN ALAN

LONDON

Sema Özevin has been producing internationally accepted works in the field of photography and video since 1996. Artist performed the Choronotope series, Womans Aura, Kinesthetic, Cosmos, Cocoon, Paradoxical Loop, Space, Parallel Universe, Ouroboros Loop projects, which she produced in fictional, experimental, figurative and abstract styles on the plane of time, place and space. While combining abstract time and concrete space in her works, she prefers experimental techniques, and from time to time, she manipulates images by creating deconstruction and form distortions.

On the other hand, she worked on many industrial documentaries, the first of which was the Pişmaniye dessert documentary project, in which she talked about local labor based on the stories of the shipyard, cement factory, animal market, antique markets and production. In parallel with her works in corporate communication and sustainable brand communication, the artist gives education in the field of art at the communication faculties of various universities in academic fields. She’s works can be followed at semozevin.com.

In addition to photography, she continues to work on videoart, documentary short films and feature films in the field of film, and has worked as a director and cinematographer. In three short films of documentary and fiction; She worked as a Director and Cinematographer in “Babam’a”, “Davut Dedem” and “Pişmaniye” and as Cinematographer in the feature film “Shelter”. She continues to produce video clips for Amselcom Music Production company in Berlin, Germany. Video works of the artist can be accessed on Sema Özevin Art TV YouTube channel.

After graduating from Kocaeli University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of Photography as a top student, she completed her master’s degree at Gazi University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Painting Department, by writing a comprehensive thesis on videoart in the context of paradoxes and cycles. She continues her doctorate education in the Department of Radio, Television and Cinema.

Do you have degrees in photography and video art? 

I have received more than 350 awards and degrees in various categories in many national and international competitions. As a result of my application to the photography federation with my result cards, I received the titles of “FIAP Fédération Internationale l’Art Photographique” Photograph Artist (AFIAP) and Excellence (EFIAP) from the International Photographic Art Federation in France. These degrees were very effective in terms of my recognition in international platforms.

Can you talk about the technique of painting with light? 

Light painting is a technique produced by long exposure using a flashlight, which is the only light source, in bulb mode, which is among the experimental photography techniques. A technique known in the project has re-existed in a style that has not been tried before. This experimental technique was announced to art lovers in the main news bulletin of CNN and NTV, two important TV channels in Turkey, at my solo exhibition last year.

What do you pay attention to when creating your visual language? How do you approachstorytelling as a photographer?

Thanks to the transfer of the common social memory, memory has become important in the transfer of visual language and communication in terms of societies. Memory storage is always coding and then recalling it from the mind, just like remembering a memory. 

In this context, if I take the photographic image in its broadest sense, I describe the subject with a special technical and aesthetic photographic language that I have created with my perspective on life and art, while drawing it out of concrete or concrete life, sometimes by abstracting it. When I say photographic language; The notification of my conceptual framework that I write for each of my projects, my framing, the differences in the angles I use, the way I emphasize the subject or object that I will emphasize in my frame and in this context, the way I use the light, the special exposures I create by making plus or minus exposures apart from standard exposures, experimental visual language, followed by my choice of color or black and white, is included in the action plan of my works.

What inspires you as a photographer? What kind of path do you follow in Project design? 

While carrying out my photography and video works, I feed a lot from myself and my environment. Events, concepts, feminine problems, dreams, sometimes a poem or song, sometimes a sentence from a book can drag me into a project. While doing the project, I first determine the subject I am working on, do detailed research on that subject and write the texts to determine my conceptual frame work. Then, after I make my shooting plan and draw a story board like a director, when the start and end date of the project, the days and hours I will shoot, the materials necessary for the production, the equipment etc. are completed, then I take action for the shooting. When I started my project, what will the shooting technique of the project be, will it be shot in black and white or in color, will it be square, panoramic or vertical, and what will be the outputs of this project; exhibition, catalogue, e-book, and what will be the method and technique of the exhibition, will this project be a classic photo print or a photo installation? I clarify all of these before starting the project and work that way.

Who are the artists that inspire you? 

In the years when I first started my photography journey, I followed magnum photographers and their work quite a lot. Although the styles of artists such as Anneie Leibovitz, Steve McCurry, Cindy Sherman, Sebastiao Salgado, Henri Cartier Bresson, Levis Hine, Doretea Lange, Loretta Lux, Yıldız Moran are different, the paths they followed and the photographic language they created motivated and inspired me in many ways.

Issues that you find difficult as a photographer? 

Although it is exhibited in print, the most challenging aspect of producing photographs, which is basically a part of digital art, is that it can be copied as many times as you want, and works can be protected within the scope of edition limitations in the digital age. The most important thing that I pay attention to when working with various galleries and collectors from around the world is that I never exceed the 1/5 edition number, regardless of size. The data of each sold buness is kept in a special excel list. A special edition card with a wet signature is also delivered to the art collector upon the delivery of the printed artwork of my artwork for sale. Apart from this, like many artists, I have difficulties in marketing the works of art. To tell the truth, we need good curators and managers in this context, where the chicken has not been seen selling eggs in the market.

How do you approach photography as a photographer to storytelling? 

Any image that doesn’t have a story in it catches my attention. In this respect, each of my projects has a story within its conceptual framework. Since I work on a project basis, I rarely take individual photographs. I like to take photos of series that have an end-to-end story that is related to each other. In abstract or abstract projects, from time to time, the audience goes beyond the story I wrote and thinks about their own story while looking at the visuals, which is one of my favorite parts. Then the work takes on a more interactive language.

Apart from these, I prefer professional camera body and 50mm, 100mm fixed range lenses, and sometimes 16-35 mm wide-angle as photography equipment, while I prefer f2.8 and below prime lenses for my aperture selection. In my light preference, I prefer lighting equipment such as daylight, reflectors, para flash, overhead flash, flashlight, continuous light systems. I also like to use special filters on both my lights and lenses. Since I work with long exposure, a tripod and a remote-controlled shutter release are definitely among my shooting equipment.

We might need a darkroom if we were shooting analog using film, but we are in the era of digital production and Photoshop or Lightroom are the right tools for processing our raw images. I also process my images in these programs. I also use plug-in silver pro when converting to black and white. If I am not going to manipulate, it is enough to process the raw image at a basic level to reach the good photo I want because I produce my works by executing a near-perfect exposure by considering all the details before taking it.

I continue to work for ongoing and planned projects in photography, video and installation art disciplines. While I am on my journey of learning, renewal and development, I continue to conduct artistic professional trainings and sustainable art communication with the Portfolio Art Space brand for those who have just started art production.