honorable mention
Attila Ataner canada
title
Maelstrøm
My personal interpretation/exposition of the images I have submitted, which are roughly sequenced in a narrative arc, is as follows:
An unfamiliar world flashes before my eyes as I sleep. In my dreams, I am often uncertain, full of doubt. I try to reach towards my inner light, but I find it’s no longer truly “inner.” That which ought to light me up from inside, now stands beyond and outside of me. Some other, powerful force pulls at the light, pulls it further away, and I wonder if it will ever be returned to me, if this external force will ever relinquish it. Elsewhere, there’s a void that stalks me. I can’t tell if it means to swallow and absorb me, or simply to spit me out. I turn and swerve, but I cannot remove myself from its presence, this void. Confusion, ambiguity and inner conflict abound.
Based In: Toronto, Canada
My background is Turkish, however, I was born in Svishtov, Bulgaria, a small town on the Danube river. During the 1980s, my parents and I lived in Tripoli, Libya, where I attended an international school for the children of ex-pats. There, I was introduced to photography by one of my all-time best and favourite teachers. I have been an avid photographer ever since. I currently live in Toronto, Canada, with my wife and two young children. I am formerly a practicing lawyer, however, I recently returned to school to pursue a Ph.D. degree in philosophy, with my focus being on environmental philosophy and legal and political theory. My current passion for photography, and the series of photos I have been working on more recently, are partly informed by my scholarly work on environmental issues.
For instance, my series titled “Landscapes of Modernity” is an attempt to translate some of my philosophical ideas into a visual-photographic form. I aim to reflect on the phenomenology and experience of our dwelling in contemporary urban landscapes, i.e., spaces that are pervaded entirely by artificial human constructs, where our visual field is colonized by an ever-present and ever-expanding array of massive, monolithic, cuboid structures. In essence, rather than focus on scholarship alone, I am attempting to express some of my philosophical ideas in the language of photographic art. And my hope is that my photographs manage to capture the dual and conflicted nature of this modern moment, i.e., this period of modernity wherein we are confronted by staggering beauty combined with a certain severity and oppressiveness.
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entry description
I live with a chronic, often debilitating illness. As I grow older, I ought to find myself “improved,” more experienced, all the wiser… or at least, I am told, this is how things ought to be. And yet, instead, I grow weary and weak … drained … ever less assured, ever more hesitant. I’ve travelled very far and accomplished a great deal, yet I’ve reached no particular place and feel as I’ve done very little. These conflicted feelings carry over into the night. They disturb my sleep and disrupt my dreams. I’ve tried processing all this. I decided to make a series of personal images that conceptually document and symbolically reflect the varied forms of my inner reality, and the strange state of my dream-world. These images were created in collaboration with friends, family, models and dancers over the course of the past year.My personal interpretation/exposition of the images I have submitted, which are roughly sequenced in a narrative arc, is as follows:
An unfamiliar world flashes before my eyes as I sleep. In my dreams, I am often uncertain, full of doubt. I try to reach towards my inner light, but I find it’s no longer truly “inner.” That which ought to light me up from inside, now stands beyond and outside of me. Some other, powerful force pulls at the light, pulls it further away, and I wonder if it will ever be returned to me, if this external force will ever relinquish it. Elsewhere, there’s a void that stalks me. I can’t tell if it means to swallow and absorb me, or simply to spit me out. I turn and swerve, but I cannot remove myself from its presence, this void. Confusion, ambiguity and inner conflict abound.
about the photographer
Hometown: Svishtov, BulgariaBased In: Toronto, Canada
My background is Turkish, however, I was born in Svishtov, Bulgaria, a small town on the Danube river. During the 1980s, my parents and I lived in Tripoli, Libya, where I attended an international school for the children of ex-pats. There, I was introduced to photography by one of my all-time best and favourite teachers. I have been an avid photographer ever since. I currently live in Toronto, Canada, with my wife and two young children. I am formerly a practicing lawyer, however, I recently returned to school to pursue a Ph.D. degree in philosophy, with my focus being on environmental philosophy and legal and political theory. My current passion for photography, and the series of photos I have been working on more recently, are partly informed by my scholarly work on environmental issues.
For instance, my series titled “Landscapes of Modernity” is an attempt to translate some of my philosophical ideas into a visual-photographic form. I aim to reflect on the phenomenology and experience of our dwelling in contemporary urban landscapes, i.e., spaces that are pervaded entirely by artificial human constructs, where our visual field is colonized by an ever-present and ever-expanding array of massive, monolithic, cuboid structures. In essence, rather than focus on scholarship alone, I am attempting to express some of my philosophical ideas in the language of photographic art. And my hope is that my photographs manage to capture the dual and conflicted nature of this modern moment, i.e., this period of modernity wherein we are confronted by staggering beauty combined with a certain severity and oppressiveness.
back to gallery