Gucci x Istanbul, 2016

Coinciding with "Elements of Style", Aperture is pleased to present a series of limited-edition prints by artists featured in the issue.

“Olgaç Bozalp’s photographs are like Georges Simenon novels. They feature characters who appear to hold many secrets:
 one wonders whether they are what they seem. For Bozalp, the rift between how we present ourselves and how we are perceived by others hits close to home. When he traveled to Istanbul last year for a Gucci commission, Bozalp was aware of his reputation in London as a rising fashion photographer. Yet, he has steered his career toward more artistic and journalistic projects. He enjoys investigating and discovering his subjects and describes his work as reportage. This does 
not quite fit into the world of fashion photography, where brands and consultants, rather than people themselves, are the ultimate deciders of how a subject is framed. Bozalp wants his subjects
 to speak through their garments.

'I don’t like dressing people up. I am okay with adding an accessory to their outfit, but that is about it,' Bozalp says. And this provides us with the central dilemma and strongest quality of his work: in their authenticity—which is often coupled with the touch of a fashion stylist—Bozalp’s characters resist an orientalist representation of non-European subjects. But they are also fictions: they appear like fashion models with no interest in selling anything other than their mysteries. The more Bozalp desires to capture the truth of his subjects, the more fictional they appear to our eyes."

—Kaya Genç, from Aperture Issue #228: “Elements of Style”

Pigment Print
Image Size: 16 x 20 inches
Paper Size: 16 x 20 inches
Edition of 10
Signed and numbered by the artist

Olgaç Bozalp was born and raised in Turkey and currently lives in London. With his hybrid perspective of the Eastern and Western worlds, he explores the worlds of his subjects. He is recognized for his cultural awareness and sensitivity to personal identities mixed with fashion and documentary. Olgaç Bolzalp was invited to shoot the Borders issue of Antidote magazine in 2017, and has been published in Numéro Homme Berlin, L’Officiel Italia, and Tank.