Olay - Emin Özmen

Meaning ‘event’ or ‘incident’, Olay is a powerful chronicle of a tumultuous decade in Turkey, tirelessly documented by Emin Özmen. This first book by Özmen is a retrospective of his work to date, recounting the photographer’s homeland in a ceaseless state of turmoil, hit by dramatic events: a failed coup d’état, popular uprisings, natural disasters, political purges, and ongoing military operations. This vivid and fast-paced series of black-and- white photographs is punctuated with moments of calm in the form of meditative colour images and personal texts. Despite the omnipresent tension, a feeling of graciousness and warmth emerges from Özmen’s work, which unfolds to form a nuanced and necessary comment on the Turkish state and the sentiments of its people.