18 NZPhotographer
Interview with
Emre Simtay
EMRE, PLEASE TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOU...
I was born in Germany, but returned to my parents’ native
Turkey in my late childhood and studied there. I came out
to New Zealand in 2005 and attended Victoria University in
Wellington to study Computer Science and upon graduation,
began a career as a software developer.WHEN AND HOW DID YOU START LEARNING
PHOTOGRAPHY?
I developed an interest in photography with my wife’s
encouragement about seven years ago. I taught myself all about
taking photos and since then I have been constantly taking
photos and documenting what’s happening around me.HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR STYLE OF
PHOTOGRAPHY?
I don’t think I ever really focused on one particular style or
category. I just enjoy taking what attracts my eye and adjust to
the current environment. As I am mostly out shooting in the
city, I usually do street, documentary style, urban and portrait
photography. Extraordinary things never fail to catch my eye.
I constantly observe my surroundings and anything that tells a
story about society or the world around me will get captured on
my camera.WHAT CAMERAS DO YOU HAVE?
Currently, I have a full frame Sony A7ii with Zeiss 35mm F2.8
and Canon FD f1.2 lens. The camera I always carry with me is
an APS-C Fujifilm XF-10. It has f.28 18mm fixed prime lens with
APS-C crop sensor and the snapshot feature, very small and very
light compact camera with all the features I can find on a DSLR.
I also have film cameras, a medium format Yashica 635 and a
35mm Canon AE-1 with 50mm f1.8 prime lens but I don’t do film
photography very often as I am not a patient person and usually
do it only on weekends when I have the time to fiddle around!WHAT MOTIVATES YOU TO PICK UP YOUR
CAMERA, ESPECIALLY WHEN ‘LIFE’ TAKES
OVER...
The thought of looking through my photos in the future and
seeing how life around us has evolved motivates me. It makes
me go out to do photography and makes me feel like I should be
shooting even more.TELL US ABOUT THE COVER PHOTO.
This was taken whilst we were showing our Wellingtonian
friends around Istanbul. We went to the Hagia Sophia museum
and there was a tourist lady posing for her friend. I liked how the light was highlighting her dance with the sunlight so took a
photo!WOULD YOU SAY THAT YOU’RE ALWAYS
LEARNING AND PUSHING YOURSELF TO
CAPTURE BETTER IMAGES? HOW DO YOU DO
THAT?
I guess so! Yes, I try to push myself to capture better images.
I sometimes take a short break from photography and go
through all my photos and re-evaluate them. I always ask myself
what makes a good photo and the answer to this question has
changed many times since I started shooting.
When I first started photography, I mostly focused on using
negative spaces correctly, having the right exposure and making
one nicely composed beautiful photo then I realised I needed
to study my subject better and try different perspectives and
I believe this improved my photography a lot.
Once I started feeling confident, I decided I needed to shoot
more often so I did photography walks every day for couple
years and focused on just taking photos – I mean without much
thinking, whatever I found interesting I took a photo of. I would
then go through all my photos to analyse them and think about
how I could improve them and what I would do differently next
time.WE DID A BEHIND THE SHOT FEATURE WITH YOU
IN ISSUE 6 (APRIL 2018), HOW WOULD YOU
SAY YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY HAS CHANGED/
IMPROVED SINCE THEN?
My photography has changed a little. I carry more lightweight
cameras and focus less on the aesthetic and more on the story
aspect of photography, trying to produce more meaningful
photos.