Ahmet was born and raised in Stockholm and is currently living and working in Istanbul. He studied Photography after Communication & Digital Media at the University of Brighton in England and in 2007 won the Guardian Student Photographer Award. In the past year his work has been published in Foto 8 and Foam Magazine, and most recently in Foam Album ‘08. His Gurbet/Far Away series is particularly outstanding, focussing on the Turkish community settled in Sweden which he was born into. You can check it out here.

When did you decide to become a photographer?
Well I started taking photos at 9 years old. My parents would always choose to drive from Stockholm to Turkey in the summers and see some of Europe on the way, which was great for us kids. However, I would get extremely bored in the car and fight with my sisters so my mum got me a camera to play with. I would take hundreds of pictures, most of the time there wouldn’t even be film in the camera, I guess I just enjoyed the actual act of framing, looking through the viewfinder and pressing the shutter. But to answer your question, I did photography and video at high school and then worked on a magazine but it wasn’t until I went to university in England when I saw photography students and that people would actually study to become serious photographers that I thought I had to get in to it. I got obsessed. Until then I belonged to the group who thought that photography wasn’t a “real” profession.

How do you describe your photographic style?
Not sure. Intimate and raw at the same time maybe. I like to get close to my subjects but I’m not interested in showing things in a romantic way so i choose a more raw style. That’s why I use pretty unsophisticated and harsh flash lighting in my work. I believe that having a style is good but if it’s dominating the subject and the concept than it can get damaging. I try to suit my style according to what I photograph and not the other way.

Do you like to talk about yourself or your photographs? If your photos, what aspects of photography?
I don’t like to talk about myself much at all. Like most photographers I’m quite shy and I think I’ve managed to develop a way of talking about myself and how I feel and think through my photos instead. Things I wouldn’t necessarily talk about or be able to express well in words comes out better in my pictures. That’s one of the reasons why I like photography because you can express something emotional and intellectual at the same time. The best work for me is a balance of intuition and intelligence. My favourite photographers are both very poetic in their work and keep a high intellectual standard as well.

Can you recall the first photo you took that made you go WOW!?
No not really. I shoot a lot but I never had that feeling. I never stop analysing my pictures so there’s never room to stop and look at them that way, always see a flaw.

Describe a day in your personal or professional life.
I get up to go to work in our studio fabrika in Maslak where we mainly shoot fashion. If there’s a shoot I’ll prepare for that whatever that may be otherwise I’ll sit and do some work or research on my computer. Weekends I work on my own projects and try to visit museums. Istanbul Modern’s library is pretty good but I wish they would expand it and buy in more photo-books. Photographer’s Gallery in London is a good reference, I miss their library.

Where is your favorite place to live and work as a photographer in the world and why?
Right now Istanbul but it’ll change I know, because I get a lot of inspiration from this city and it suits my temperament to live in a large and energetic city like Istanbul at the moment, but I’m sure in the future I will want to live in a place with more ‘organized chaos’ like London perhaps.

How does your personality change when you look through the camera?
It doesn’t change at all. If anything I become more sensitive when I’m with a camera because I’m looking more intensely. I don’t agree with people who seem to think that photographers ‘hide’ behind their cameras. I’m the opposite, it takes a lot of courage to take a portrait of someone you don’t know.

How do you feel about missed shots which cannot be recreated?
I hate it! I get that feeling all the time! But there’s nothing I can do. I just have to live with it and be better prepared next time.

Who are your influences?
I don’t have one single person or one single influence. I try to get inspired by many things. a lot of music, cinema, many photographers, JH Engström, Paul Graham, Daido Moriyama, Robert Adams, Robert Frank just to name a few photographers whose work I revisit.  I think it’s so easy to find inspiration now because of the availability of Art museums, galleries, music venues, cinema and the internet. You just have to look for the right things and the right place and I’m sure you’ll find it. Inspiration rarely comes to me unless I’m receptive of it.

What is your favorite image, either your own or someone else’s or both?
No favourite image. But I have favourite books. Robert Franks “The Americans”, JH’s “Trying to Dance”, Paul Grahams “Shimmer of Possibilities”, Daido Moriyamas “Bye Bye Photography” etc. so many.

How do you feel about cropping?
No problem for me. I don’t mind any kind of manipulation of photos as long as it goes with the concept and communicates what you’re aiming to communicate. I sometimes use Photoshop, I crop, I set up photos etc. I don’t care how photos are made, I’m only interested in what they’re saying.

What are your favorite subjects to photograph?
Nothing specific. Anything that interests me and that I feel for.

What are the biggest personal or professional challenges you face on a daily basis?
Lack of time to do my personal work is a big problem.

Tell your funniest, scariest, most bizarre, most touching story from a photo shoot?
I was beaten up once when taking photos, I think that incident falls under all those categories. It was in the middle of the day in a busy part of Istanbul, it was strange.

Do you ever have photographer’s block and if yes how do you deal with it?
Rarely because I look at so many different sources and therefore get inspired by so many things. Instead I have the opposite problem of too many ideas that never get made or are just bad ideas.

Who or what would you love to shoot that you haven’t already?
I would love to go to space and shoot the earth and all the other planets from there!

www.ahmetunver.com