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Murat Germen
Photographer
Turkey
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Born in Turkey
Exhibitions:
- First Annual Photo Exhibition CPC/CAPA 2006, Tehran, Iran
- Isfahan Photo Exhibition CPC/CAPA, 2007, Iran
- Second Annual Photo Exhibition CPC/CAPA 2007, Tehran, Iran
- First & Second Annual Photo Exhibition CPC/CAPA, Sulaymania, Kurdistan, Iraq, Nov. 20-25, 2007
- First & Second Annual Photo Exhibition CPC/CAPA, Seymour Art Gallery, North Vancouver, Canada, May 8-29, 2008
Murat Germen has a BS degree in city planning from Technical University of Istanbul and an MA degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he went as a Full-bright scholar and received AIA Henry Adams Gold Medal for academic excellence. He works as a professor of photography and multimedia design at Sabanci University in Istanbul. Previously, he worked for various state and private universities such as Bilkent, Yeditepe, Yildiz and Bilgi University, teaching various topics. Germen conducts his own business doing professional photography for distinguished publishers / organizations, such as Yapi Kredi Culture and Art Publishers, Young & Rubicam / Reklamevi, Link McCann Erickson, Medina & Turgul DDB Advertising Agency, Aga Khan Architectural Awards in Geneva, Siemens, Koc Holding, Istanbul Modern Museum of Art, Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, Economic & Social History Foundation of Turkey, etc. Having many articles / photo series published on architecture / photography / art / digital design at various magazines and books; he has been invited to several seminars to lecture on pertinent topics. He has opened over twenty national / international exhibitions and currently writes periodically for Digital PhotoLine, a digital photography magazine; and Paralax, an online photography publication. Murat has received national and international awards for work on photography, design and architecture.
"Photography for me is a tool to express personal and/or collective thoughts, ideas, ideals, inclinations, likes... This
process usually leads to series that tell stories, create moods or provoke impressions. The investigational method followed during the course of action, does not necessarily favor any particular photographical trend and is specifically aimed to address a wide range of spectators; using a natural, hopefully sincere and enthusiastic visual language.
For years, I was out to “take” photos, now I concentrate more on “making” photos. This is one of the reasons why technical issues are secondary to me, the priority is at what I want to explain. My focus is particularly on celebrating the straightforwardness and sincerity hidden in ordinary things, objects, spaces, processes, lives…
I use panoramic format very frequently due to the fact that panoramic photography lets one perceive the object / subject / space of interest as an entity with relation to their surroundings. Many details on the periphery that would normally be left out in single frames become “centralized” in panoramic photography. As a consequence, you end up with a particular life form of its own kind which turns out to be the synthesis of individual forms, in other words a "sui generis” situation... This unique narrative can be extended to cubist works and Ottoman miniatures where unrealistic multifaceted descriptions can be observed, or reminds us of Piranesi’s drawings depicting complicated interwoven three dimensional worlds."
Methods used:
- Camera: Canon EOS 1Ds digital camera and various lenses
- Software: Adobe Photoshop CS2 for RAW editing and basic processes like contrast, saturation, distortion correction, etc. / LensDoc for lens correction / Autostitch, PtGui, Panorama Maker, Panorama Factory, Photovista for panoramic stitching / NeatImage, NoiseNinja for noise cleaning
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