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Reş

These photographs are part of a work carried out for two years in the forest of Güzelbahçe in Izmir, in western Turkey. The images document the daily life of children belonging to a minority, the Kurdish, coming from the eastern part of the country. These families where pushed into exile at the 90’s. They had to leave their homes, their lands, their beloved ones.

Nowadays, they survive working on the production of wood charcoal. Each member of the family, from the elder to the youngest, men of woman, participate in every task of this work. Every day, every time, their daily life is done of carring on, cutting, burning, separating, carring on and breathing once and again. Once and again their daily life is done of fire, smoke, dust and black.

Behind the smoke that rises far away but so close, inside but outside of the city, the reality that we found made our questions more diverse, more heartbraking. So far but so close, hidden but in front of us, there’s a harsch reality unknown for so many. But there is also a way of life that learn us about the sens of fraternity and living in community. A paradox gets unfold. That’s the complexity that the portrait of this documentary photos tries to describe.

There’s not only the ending paths of exile, there’s also the hidden but sorrounding reality that commes out. 

This photo-essay work was carried out in 2012 with Serkan Çolak from Mahzen Photos collective.

2012
İzmir - Turkey

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