Caglar Tahiroglu is a photographer and a psychologist born in Istanbul, Turkey. She is currently living in Lyon, France. Her work is published in Thiaps Inlimited Grain Books and featured in Glossom.

Where do you live currently, and how long have you lived there? What do you like the most about where you live?

I’m in Istanbul for about a month. I was born here and I left for France when I was 18. Now I am here to see family, friends and packing my stuff for my Asia trip. I like the diversity of Istanbul, every district is another world, it gives impression of travelling far away. It’s a crossing point between Europe and Orient.

What did you have for breakfast today?

A turkish breakfast : Black tea, different type of cheese, egg, village bread, salad, olives and fresh cream.

Do you dabble in other artistic mediums, or do you mostly stick to photography? What do you like best about photography?

I also write but it is more for private uses, I don’t think to expose it. For me photography is about capturing an instant : It can be real sequence or a subconscious one. Manipulating the world, giving it a personal touch on my personal views. I always try to hint something underneath in my photography, an element confusing who may have several meanings to follow.

Your photos have a lot of great textural qualities. Do you use film or digital cameras (or both)? Do you do any digital manipulation to your photos on the computer?

I don’t use any digital manipulation or digital cameras, they don’t really give ,just as you said, a textural organic touch to photos. I make double film exposures to put two images together.

I really like your photo set titled “Scent Of My Grandmother’s House”. Can you tell us a little bit about your relationship with your grandmother and why you chose to do a project about her and her home?

My grandmother and my grandfather (anneanne and dede in turkish) were good role models to me when I was a child. They are in love since very young and even though I found them conservative and even repressive in my teenager years, when I arrived to adult age I found beauty in their life style and love they brought me. It was just a spontaneous project while my stay with them. This home inspires something about my personal history but my country’s also, about what has been conserved,what has been lost and what is so precious.

If you had to choose one (or at most two) of your own photos to call your favorite, which ones would they be and why?

I really don’t know, my photos are like my children. 🙂 I would like to show this one because it reprents such a great feeling for me, a great spring with an idea of communion with nature , maybe losing yourself in it beyond any personal ego. Kinda found and lost feeling. I want to show also one of my Psyke series because I like the overall composition and the tenderness in it. I love water compositions , something very appealing about problematic of femininity.

What are your sources of inspiration for your photo projects? Do you findthat inspiration comes to you randomly or do you spend a lot of time choosing what to photograph?

Sometimes I think about a project a lot and sometimes there is an urge to photograph all spontaneously.

I also really like your group of photos called “Believing”. Why did you choose that title for those photos?

Original title was believing in ghosts. It sends to idealistic ideas that we believe and they never succeed in the real world. Black and white personage in this series comes from a state of no time, they belong to the past, refuse to disappear, don’t exist in the present either. Do we believe in this appearances? That can be love, attachment or political views.

Are you currently working on / planning any new photo projects? If so, can you tell us about them?

I’m going on a big trip in Asia (Nepal, İndia, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam), I think I will just wait for the ideas to show up!

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