After
first studying Art Theory and Criticism at Isik University,
Mocan transferred to the Department of Photography and Video
at Bilgi University where he completed his undergraduate degree
in 2009. His BA project consisted of portraits of Turkish cinema
directors. Each director is given first intervention on the prints
of himself. In this way the work transcends that of being only a
photography project and becomes one that displays a series of
very unique and original photographs.
His first solo exhibit, Beyaz Perde (The White Screen), which
is composed of portraits of film actors and directors, opened in
2009. Constructed of sixty analog, black and white photographs,
this project led Mocan to simultaneously go off in two different
directions: cinema and photography.
Unlike his first exhibit, which was primarily one of portraiture
and documentary, Mocan’s second exhibit, Çöküs
(Downfall)
takes a more fictional stance. Reflecting a critique of the human
condition, Çöküs turns its lens to matters of loneliness,
depression,
anxiety, death, ethics, and conscience. Mocan says that this
project grew out of the mental states of those people who share
his personal environs. In that sense, Çöküs integrates
that which is
fictional with that which is true, and the series itself can be
seen as
a deeply rooted critique of the states of mind of people today.
Mocan has participated in both solo and numerous group
exhibits and his works have been recognized with a number
of international awards. Among those is the award in Fine
Arts he received from the International Photography Awards
competition of 2012.
Today Mocan is continuing his academic work at the
Department of Art Theory and Criticism of Isik University where
he
is concentrating his efforts on that institution’s graduate
school of
contemporary photography.
Speaking about his work, he says: “I have never asked
myself what the art of photography means to me personally.
This is because for me the very act of photographing is an act of
self-expression, a way for me to express the feelings I have, but
cannot express with words. It is my personal endeavor – one
that
I carry out without becoming bored with the process – to give
meaning by explaining and re-explaining the sustentation of life
itself. When I started off, I used an analog camera and black and
white film to create portraits and documentary photographs.
This work was based on a very clear decision: to sometimes
personally experience the pain felt by that individual, sometimes
to document their inner states, and sometimes to share in their
inner joy – in other words, to share in the traces of their
lives.
I tried to document these traces in contrast, that is, black and
white, as a way to capture and preserve that very elusive moment.
“Time marches on, as they say, and the same is for me and
my work, as my perspectives also began to gradually evolve. Over
time, the use of only these two contrasting colors gave way to a
desire to utilize the infinite variety of colors. Focus on the traces
seen on human faces gave way to a focus on the traces seen in
spaces. Rather than trying to capture a specific instance, I began
to create photographs that are manipulated and use the power of
color. Rather than creating photographs that very directly reveal
the essence of the subject, my new photographs tend to obscure
the subject. The subject is cloaked within the colors in the frame,
but is never entirely lost. Even though the design enshrouds
the subject, it still is decipherable. For this reason, rather than
selecting a single individual as the subject of photograph, I began
to select the subject of mankind as a whole and, while doing this,
I began to concentrate on such subjects as conscience, death,
isolation, alienation, anxiety, and depression.
“Rather than the question of what art is, I always prefer
to
ask myself ‘what should an artist be like’? If there
can only be one
answer to this question, I would say that the artist has to always
ask him or herself, and to keep on asking – as a human being
–
what life means. If the artist stops questioning this, it means
that
the artist will no longer be open to change and will be shutting
himself off from finding new meanings. With my new projects I
continue to do what I have done in the past, that is to continually
question life and all of its meanings. That is why my style always
changes, evolves, for that which I am trying to explain is also
changing and evolving. It is actually this kind of change that
propels me to engage in art in this changing world.”
Source
: “Modern and Contemporary Approaches to Photography in Turkey”
Author: Engin Özendes
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