Bauart catalogue questionnaire
An unusual friendship
A photographic exploration of the Turkish and Anzac soldiers, who fought in
Gallipoli and their descendants.
What inspired you to start your extensive work about the Gallipoli War?
This new body of work evolved as natural continuation from my previous work
documenting the direct descendants of 160,000 European convict settlers in
Australia over 200 years ago. As a photographer, what interested me the
most was the fact that the theft of the objects of relatively small value could
have such a dramatic effect on so many people’s lives.
Subsequently, I wanted to explore the relationship of the Anzac and Turkish
soldiers, who fought in Gallipoli and their descendants today. How did they
feel about their ancestor, who fought in Gallipoli? Were they proud or sorry
about the cost of human lives and the hardship their ancestors had to go
through?
As I've started researching the eight-month long Gallipoli campaign I was
surprised to discover that there were incidents of exchanging cigarettes,
matches and chocolate between the Turkish and Anzac trenches, where a
unique friendship and respect was mutually formed through enduring the
same arduous conditions. This was quite an unusual outcome of war between
enemies. I wanted to focus on this powerful connection and dialogue between
the three societies, that has developed after the war.
Challenges photographical and personal
The project was a challenging journey at a few levels.
Firstly, it was difficult to find the descendants of the soldiers on both sides due
privacy laws. Even though it's easy to access the names of soldiers, it's much
harder to trace down their families. Associations like Returned Services
League (RSA) in Australia and Returned Services' Association (RSA) in New
Zealand were helpful to call out for interest. In addition, especially on the
Turkish side most subjects had difficulty tracking down their ancestor's image
or unable to prove their ancestor's involvement in Gallipoli campaign due to
lack of records. Most of the Turkish soldiers' images were taken when there
were much older due to lack of access to photographical technology in rural
areas.
Secondly it was also equally challenging to develop the visual style of the
project. Most of the descendants had their ancestors' image amongst their
possessions, hence the idea of photographing the descendants with their
ancestor's image surfaced. I wanted to capture both generations in a singular
image by using a projected image of the ancestor in the same environment as
their descendant. This enabled me to create a poignant atmosphere and to
capture the subject's mood at a contemplative moment.
Finally, the projected image approach itself brought it's limitations and visual
style to the project. All images were taken in low light conditions with slow
shutter speed to be able to capture the subject with the projected image.
However, my biggest personal challenge was the time limitation to research
and produce work in a short period of time to exhibit the work during the
Gallipoli Centenary commemorations in 2015.
A connection between your work and issues in our world today
Somehow I'm more interested in the effects, the consequences of the world
issues. What happens when you send 160,000 English convicts to the other
side of the world: you end up with a powerful and prosperous nation, what
happens when to enemies fight with so close proximity for over 8 months:
they grow to respect each other and form a friendship. I find these unexpected
outcomes fascinating.
I do believe that knowledge of one’s past develops a stronger sense of
belonging, and enables one to pass on this gift to subsequent generations.
Both of these projects evolved from this personal search for belonging.
By displaying an equal number of descendants of Anzacs and Turkish
soldiers side-by-side I aim to bring the 'two sides' together. The viewers will
be able to reflect on their own and their foes' past and acknowledge the
sacrifices and hardships their ancestors endured.
On a personal note, as a Turkish-born Australian, I feel a strong connection
with both Australia and Turkey and I’m very pleased to witness the growing
bond between the three countries. With this project I hope to present my
observations about this war and it's consequences as a documentary
photographer.