Institute: How did your career in photography begin?
Gokhan: I started when at a very young age, I could say. I then had a music company – an amateur one. I used to shoot the album covers, design the posters of the musicians signed with the company. When a musician walked into my studio, I used to wish a sole, exclusive hand would took care of the whole process for recording, photoshooting, advertisement and promotion design, PR and media management and so on. It is however extremely difficult to make a living by doing business in the genre of alternative music in my country. So I had to make a choice and turned to graphic design and photography. Eventually and ultimately, to maintain my focus, I grew away from the graphic design too.
Institute: Who did you aspire to growing up?
Gokhan: I’ve never focused on making money. I just wanted to be among the best in what I did. Though such ambition of mine got faded in time, I will continue doing the best I could.
Institute: What are you currently working on?
Gokhan: I’m preparing the moodboards of the shootings I want to get done this summer.
Institute: Do you have an all time favourite image?
Gokhan: Kristian Schuller’s Circus series is my all-time favorite, muse and inspiration.
Institute: What is your creative process?
Institute: A photograph, a song, a memory can ignite, vivify really, an idea in my head. Then I do a preliminary research on this idea, review some of the previous works of such kind. After finding a relevant model from agencies, deciding on the retouch and colors, I set up the lighting.
Institute: What has been your proudest moment to date?
Gokhan: “Beauty Retouching Kit” the Photoshop Add-on that completely myself developed – Adobe liked and appreciated it very much, and it came along as one of the best-seller expansions. That made me pretty proud.
Institute: What career path would you of taken if not photography?
Gokhan: Without a shadow of a doubt, I would want to do something in music – as Producer, Talent Scout, whatever. Yet, due to the same reason I stated for the first question, I guess I would have a job related to computer science. Perhaps I would become an editor at one of the tech magazines.
Institute: What do you think of taking photos with your phone?
Gokhan: I don’t usually take photos with my phone. I prefer carrying a compact camera with me instead. But the technology is developing at the speed of light, so, soon, I won’t even need to carry it anymore. I don’t know if this is good or bad. It feels like photography is losing its value.
Institute: What does 2016 hold for you?
Gokhan: As 2015, 2016 too is my year of “Recovery”. I had a pretty exhausting adolescence. I tried to leap up the stairs but it threw off my balance. This year will mark as the one I turn back and cement those steps.
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