16
B+W
›
A
lkan’s mood, or state of mind, is
integral to what she photographs- ‘when I am having a gloomy
day, my photos may turn out to
be gloomy too’ – though the composition
of many of the photographs in Stray Dog is
wry, suggesting a sardonic, unexpected wit.
There is so much going on in some of the
pictures that the viewer is left questioning.
In it, a stationary bike rests on a wall, against
the backdrop of an uninviting lake, with a
lone man facing a pile of rubbish, engulfed
by a flock of birds, and stray cats dotted
about. ‘The objects that strike me are those
that stand out. They may stand out in
every setting, or in a particular one.
I definitely don’t wait on a street corner
for a moment to happen. I don’t wait for
people to walk into a frame I have fixed
through my viewfinder.’
Alkan has no fixed plans to expand on
the series, but she doesn’t rule out thepossibility that her vagabond spirit may
call her to the streets once again. ‘Stray Dog
may turn out to be like a lover you spend
your whole life with, or a lover you spend
just a summer with but never forget. All I
know is that I liked “being with” Stray Dog.’Sevil Alkan is the co-founder of H-Art
Collective, a street photography co-operative
in which she and three other collaborators’
aim is to present mobile photography as art.
Her award-winning work has been exhibited
internationally, including Fotoİstanbul 2016
and the Porec Museum in Croatia in 2018.
To see more of Stray Dog and Housewives,
go to sevilalkan.com.tr‘I found that having not
answered questions about
myself helped a great deal
when asking questions about
the people and places thatI photographed.’