An Interpretation of an Archive: Images Displaced From Their Subject

When I think about photography, I believe that before I create any image, I observe the world through the lens of all the experiences my embodied being has accumulated.

However, another possibility lies in the sustainability of images and their ability to renew themselves. As the subject of the photograph, as an artist, I can choose to revisit the same image with new experiences and insights gained after its original creation. In doing so, the image can transform, gain new meaning, and reshape its context. This series confronts such potentials that I explore through the act of scanning.

The works were produced by researching the photographic archives of the Hilton Istanbul Bosphorus, which I see as an important social complex in the daily life of Istanbul. The series was inspired by portraits of people who stayed at the hotel between the 1950s and 1980s and participated in various social gatherings. These portraits physically separate the photographed individuals from their original images through cutting, filling in the gaps created using other images found in the archives. This process reveals the new integrity of meaning that can emerge when elements that have transcended time come together.

Inspired by the basic principle of double exposure, I use the physical layering of images to evoke a reflex of overlapping moments, and I call the series Always Remember Me Like This.

The traditional concept of an archive is a secure space that houses and preserves objects in a recognizable form within a specific location. In this case, however, large-scale photographs that fill the gaps created by the removal of their original subjects exceed the physical space of the archive. Presented on perforated fabric, these photographs create a flexible alternative material that expands the boundaries of the archive by spreading out into a garden.

Berk Kır is part of Münchner Kammerspiele X Der Greif: “Off to Elsewhere”.

Check out his Artist Feature You Have a Place Above My Head.