Photographing Turkey’s Dispossessed
An Aperture essay on Cansu Yıldıran; new events at University of California Irvine and Northwestern; and an essay on Oğuz Atay, my first literary idol
Dear readers,
It has been a hectic fortnight: the end of the year is fast approaching and I’ve been contributing to numerous “the end of the year” surveys. In Artforum, I was part of the magazine’s annual Year-in-Review issue which, for the first time, includes “The Critics’ Critics,” a new column that highlights “some of the best work done by critics over the past year” according to a group of writers, “making the case for the continued relevance of criticism today.”
I wrote on Michael Wood’s “At the Movies” columns at the London Review of Books where, in February 2024, my favorite writer on film discussed Jonathan Glazer’s Zone of Interest.
In the same issue of Artforum I had the good fortune to also write on Itziar Barrio’s practice.
Another essay published in the US this month was for Aperture. I’ve been following Cansu Yıldıran’s works for the past year and I wrote about their galvanic images of women activists and queer communities that portray the pressures of a society in transition.
The Turkish novelist Oğuz Atay, “my first literary idol”, also devoted his work to pondering and fighting the pressures of Turkey’s patriarchal society. With his work finally published in a fine English edition by the New York Review Books, I was able to write about my relationship with this soulful writer for The Point.
2024 is coming to a close with good news from our neighbor, Syria. Bashar al-Assad ruled Syria with an iron fist for 24 years before getting his comeuppance, and I wrote about how he received silent support from one of the unlikeliest places during his dictatorial rule: the Turkish Left.
Finally, I want to announce two events for early 2025! I’ll be joining Dean Baquet, former EIC of The New York Times, Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of Committee to Protect Journalists, Betsy Reed, editor of The Guardian US, Pulitzer-winner Hector Tobar and Francisco Goldman, one of my literary idols, and a group of fantastic journalists and writers in a University of California Irvine conference on February 7-8, 2025.
I hope to send a final newsletter before the year closes. Until then, I wish all readers a peaceful December!
Until next time,
—Kaya
Wow! Doing great work in the world! Thank you for keeping us apprised.