Erdal Abinin de dediği gibi ''fotoğrafı masum bir hobi, hoşça vakit geçirmeye yarayan bir uğraş veya çeşitli siteler marifeti ile sosyalleşme aracı olarak görmeyin.''

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(Erdal Abinin son yazısı...)

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Erdal Kınacı :Vision

The State of Subnormality*

You will carry two notes in your pocket.

You are the center of the world will write on one of them. You are nothing on the other.

You will read the second note when you feel yourself like a cat’s whiskers, and you will read the first one when you stop seizing the day.

These were the words our old wise teacher used to repeat in every lesson, who was famous for giving life lessons rather than lectures in the classroom.

Lately, I quite often need to take out the first note, “you are the center of the world” from my pocket, and read it to myself.

Let alone seizing the day, I even turned my back to photography, something as vital as life for me, my motivation for holding on to life. I don’t even want to see those miraculous cameras of mine, my precious ones.

Anything about photography, an article, a text, or books, anything at all, makes me deeply nervous and need more tranquilizers.

This piece of writing, I feel obliged to write for the sake of keeping my word, means nothing but a heartache now. I am very well aware that it will mean nothing for the reader as well.

Unfortunately, I lost my faith in justice in this “lonely and beautiful country”, dressed in “a state of subnormality*” for a while.

Can anyone be lynched for photography? I have been given the answer recently.

I don’t think anyone would read this page except the editor. But if I am wrong, and if anyone has spent his/her time to read this text so far, I am sure s/he has got curious already.

I am sorry:

Can anyone be lynched for photography? I won’t give you the answer. I have no intention to utter that attempt here once again that is still in progress.

The only thing I can say is that please be careful. Don’t take photography as an innocent hobby, a pastime that will cheer you up, or a site of socialization through various websites.

What you should know is one sole frame that you share with other people holds the power of changing, or even ruining your whole life overnight that you have built brick by brick. So I say, please, beware.

Erdal Kinaci
June 30 th 2008


*Erdal Kınacı uses a pun in his title, which is nearly impossible to translate to any language. In Turkish, the term “the state of emergency – olağanüstü hal” is similar in some ways to “the state of abnormality” for which Mr. Kinaci uses “the state of subnormality” as his title. In the name of referring to the causes of his present condition, I tried to translate the title as he intended that would definitely need an explanation instead of using the word “state of emergency” to highlight the historical and political perspective.

``Translated by : Murat Goc & Elif Vargi`