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Research Report

This should be a summary of and a critical reflection on your research process so far. You should try to give the reader a sense of the process you have been through - your journey, your thoughts and decisions along the way and what has informed the choices you’ve made. Try to be as honest and as critically reflective as you can.

Please extend boxes as required (length 1000-2000 wds)

Name: Elif Abacı                                          

 Major Project Title

(Or working title - how and why did this title develop?)

Every Child Smiles In The Same Language is the working title of my project. In this project I am focusing on the children who needs help in my hometown Istanbul/Turkey. There are many children in different nationalities as I focused on Turkish, Kurdish, Syrian refugees etc. As this project’s message, there is no different between any children. They all need to be happy and peaceful without suffering in the middle of the war or begging people for money on the streets, with ripped clothes. The smile of the children in my portraits represents every child all around the world. That was the reason I thought this title was the most suitable one.

Research Methods

(What methods have you used during this phase of the project and how have they helped you develop your ideas and inform your major project proposal?)

The main method was looking at other photography projects similar to mine. To see their perspective about the same topic and their photographic eye for the children gave me inspiration, it helped a lot to see another examples for the similar subject as it makes it easier to get out of your own rights and rules and be flexible with trying new different things. I had chance to go to some exhibitions related to my subject as well which gives you the opportunity to see how other photographers represent their works. I was constantly following the news and social media as well to catch any other volunteer work, any photography project or any video made for children. When I was in London I always got in touch with the volunteers for my charity organisation so they collected all the needs and reported me if they found out any new family or children in different locations. After I started my shootings in Istanbul, there were always few people around me so I listened their recommendations and any opinion they suggested me to do. I also asked many people for feedback when I started to do my editing process.

 Pilot Project

(What have you achieved through the development of your pilot project/s? What have you learned from the process? Identify the main concepts that might direct or drive your major project.)

Some part of my life was always connected to those people who needs help and support. It doesn’t matter if I was studying or working or whatever, I was always there for them. The major project is the final and most important one for my university education. So I wanted to put together the two important things, photography and children. During the development of my pilot project, I improve myself a lot to talk with strangers without hurting their feelings. I have learned how to be next to them like their friend but continue your shootings and recordings at the same time without making it too obvious. I had chance to print my portraits in the print space, which gave me a huge difference experience about the printing process. Definitely the main concept that might direct my major project is the happiness, interviews and face expressions in the portraits and videos. Whatever I change or remove from my pilot project, I will stick on the idea of their happiness and feelings.

 Audience and Context

(Has a consideration of Context and Audience made you think about your project in a particular way? Have you been aware of the histories, conventions and audience expectations of particular contexts? Have you considered different contexts and how have you responded to them?)

 I tried to ignore the idea of doing whatever fits to my mind only. That’s why, I always cared about what audience would think and I always analysed any feedback for my project. The idea of taking the second portrait with the things that children wants, came from other people as well, it wasn’t my plan but I considered it and it was better than what I was planning to do, so I changed the shooting plan depends on that. Some people suggested me to write down and plan every single question and ask the same questions for each child. I ignored that suggestion because I wanted to create questions depends on the life and the story of that child. It would hurt their feelings.

 Production and Presentation

(Discuss the production methods you have been exploring through your pilot project. What effects do these different approaches/ visual strategies have on the work?  What choices have you made in the refinement of your visual approach and why? Is the approach you have chosen effective in communicating your ideas to the identified audience?)

At the beginning my idea was taking two different portraits of each child one right after I went next to them and one after we talk and helping them, so I could catch that smile on their face. Then this idea changed depends on the suggestions and feedbacks. I felt like I have to explain everything about the project more deeply otherwise it would not be clear for the audience especially if they don’t know me. So for the presentation; Firstly there will be a brief about the charity organisation so people wont think that I helped them for the project only. Secondly there will be a video showing the locations and the interviews, and then lastly there will be the main portraits of 7 children. I am also planning to add other portraits of children, the sizes can be smaller compare to main portraits but I think it would be more effective with more smile of children. The reason I want to show it in different productions such as photography and video is it will help audience to understand everything faster and easier. So I believe it is going to be effective in communicating my ideas to the audience.

Visual References / Bibliography

(List the key visual and critical references you have explored during the research process. Discuss how useful these references were for the project and what you learned from them).

Photographic Work: Olivia Arthur, Bruno Barbey, Ian Berry, Werner Bischof, Chien-Chi Chang, Bieke Depoorter, Thomas Dworzak, Nikos Economopoulos, Cristina García Rodero, Philip Jones Griffiths, Erich Lessing, Lorenzo Meloni, Moises Saman, Jerome Sessini, David Seymour, Chris Steele-Perkins, Newsha Tavakolian, John Vink, Patrick Zachmann

Exhibition: I Welcome Refugee-Magnum Photos Exhibition, Suriyeli Çocuklar Fotoğraf Sergisi (Syrian Children Exhibition), UNICEF Turkey Exhibition-Children of Syria

Book: The Color of Home (Mary Hoffman), Why Are People Refugees (Cath Senker) Four Feet, Two Sandals (Karen Lynn)

Article: Crisis in Syria: Refugees by Jethro Mullen (CNN), Still time to help child refugees (The Guardian), Refugees and Displaced People (The New York Times), Feeling Terror, Finding Refuge (National Geographic), Syria’s War (BBC)

At the beginning of this project, I just had few ideas and few plans about what I wanted to do. Even if I was with these children before the project doesn’t mean that I know everything about what they have been through so far. Without reading, researching and finding inspirations, my idea would be very limited and meaningless. I Welcome Refugee exhibition was another step for me to learn and think more deeply about Syrian children’s past in the war. Every article that I have read gave me another perspective of understanding.

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Major Project Budget

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Final Prints for Pilot Project

Today I went to the print space to get my final prints. After I select the main portraits, I edited them all in black and white because I believe it will show the details and feelings much better as audiences wouldn’t be distracted with any colour. I preferred the C-Type Matt paper. All in all I selected 7 children. So there is 14 portraits in total as there are 2 portraits for each child. The sizes of my prints are A4 and it has white borders.

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Major Project Proposal

This should be a clear, focussed and coherent proposal for the major project that you intend to produce in Semester 2 and should give the reader a clear sense of what the project will involve when read alongside the pilot project.

 Please extend boxes as required (500-1000wds)

Name: Elif Abacı

 Project Title (or working title): Every Child Smiles In The Same Language

 Subject / Concept

(What the project is about?)

This major project is about the homeless children, children who need help and support, and Syrian refugees in my country, Turkey. The project will look at their life conditions, their stories and their dreams. It will have interviews, background stories, videos and portraits of the children.

 Aims

(What do you want to achieve?)

I have a charity organisation since 5 years in Istanbul to help homeless children, elder people, children refugees, any family who needs help and support. With the help of this charity organisation; I want to reach children, make their wish come true, try to make them happy as much as I can, interview with them and their family members so their life stories can reach more people. As it’s a common thing to have many refugees or many people who needs help in my country, it’s not that common for London. It’s really hard to understand how they feel without actually seeing them. So with this project I want to give a message that; its not that easy to end these sadness with turning off the news, however its not that hard to help them as I started this charity organisation on my own but I have many supporters behind me right now. We can start doing something for them today, and the world will be much better when every child smiles.

 Context / Audience

(Where will it be seen / who is it for?)

I would like my project to be seen in an art gallery for sure. However I would also like to exhibit my project in any public place such as tube stations, shopping malls, schools, and streets to catch people’s attention and create awareness. This project is not for any specific group of people. It is for any one who wants to understand them and help them.

 Proposed form, medium, presentation

(How will you execute it and present it?)

For the first step, I am planning to present the project in a physical file and wall installation. However I will change few things till the final submission. There will be a short video, brief for the charity organisation, actual portraits and there might be few smaller portraits of other children that I’ve been helping all this time.

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Time Plan

12 January: Pilot Project Deadline 

February: Feedback and provisional marks for the pilot project. 

March: Finish editing the video and the brief for the charity organisation.

April: Do the final prints, frame the photographs.

17 May: Final deadline.

22 June: Degree Show 

11 July: Graduation Ceramony 

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Suriyeli Çocuklar Fotoğraf Sergisi (Syrian Children Exhibition)

This was an exhibition that I went during my time in Istanbul. Different photographers came all together for this project. They have been shooting Syrian children all around Turkey and they made a book for the exhibition which includes all artists with their writings and their work.

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Second Shooting day in Istanbul

I don’t prefer to shoot portraits only for the major project. I also want to make a short video, so the audience will be able to see the areas they live in details, listen their own voice which would effect a lot better then a single portrait. So today I went to a different location which is Örnektepe. Most people are Syrian refugees who lives in this town because the rents are cheaper compare to other locations. The houses are so small and neglected. The walls are ruined and the water comes in directly when its rainy. So the house conditions are generally really poor. I tried to record video mostly this time. It doesn’t matter if you know them really good or not, it makes them feel secure when you act friendly to them, instead of showing that you are there just for helping. Today I went to visit a Syrian refugee family that I know for a long time. They moved to Istanbul 4 years ago from Aleppo during the war. They lost many of their family members in Syria in front of their eyes during the bombings. Children couldn’t continue studying as the Turkish ID is needed to apply any school. They really want to go back to their hometown. Their mother cant work because she is not able to walk properly so the children goes to high streets especially the ones which have traffic all the time to sell tissue paper and water. This is a fast motion version of my house visit.

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First Shooting day in Istanbul

It’s been 5 days that I came back to Istanbul and I finished collecting all possible needs they might ask me such as winter clothes, gloves, boots, shoes, books, dresses and hats. I went to a small village called Bolluca where I always visit the children; who lives on the streets or the families which has poor life conditions. There is also an orphanage in the village where I always visit whenever I’m in Istanbul. I wanted to check around and tried to meet with new children who needs help and support. I found a street full of kids. At the beginning they were scared because they didn’t know who I was. Then few of them came next to me, when we start talking about their life they relaxed and started to talk with me like I was their friend. I tried to analysis their life conditions from their clothes and from the little chat we had. For some of them it was so obvious that they needed help. The weather was -1 degrees and they were with tiny ripped t-shirts. I helped them all and take as many photographs as I can. It doest matter if I use all images or not but I want to have the maximum amount of portraits so I will have chance to eliminate later on for the ones that I don’t feel happy with. Here are some test shoots from my first shooting day;

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Amnesty International UK and Magnum Photos Exhibition; I Welcome

Amnesty International UK and Magnum Photos are launching a new photography exhibition. This new exhibition on London’s Southbank presents a visual representation of the scale of international displacement since the end of World War II, putting a human face to the statistics and news stories. It aims to shine a light on the realities of those uprooted by conflict in the past and present. The photographs on display illustrate the reasons many are forced to flee, the journeys they face and for some, the end point of safety. The earliest photographs on display are Magnum co-founder David ‘Chim’ Seymour’s images of child refugees in Greece in 1946, counterpointed with Chien-Chi Chang’s photograph of a mountain of lifejackets abandoned in Lesbos taken just earlier this year. From Philip Jones Griffiths 1968 image of those fleeing their homes in Vietnam in 1968, to Thomas Dworzak’s Chechen refugee children playing in the snow in Russia in 1999 and Lorenzo Meloni’s recent image of a Syrian family in front of the rubble which used to be their home – the photographs provide a small glimpse into the narratives of the those uprooted in the past decades and offer an historical context to the current refugee crisis in Europe. Tom Davies who is the campaign manager at Amnesty International UK, said that “Photography can be a powerful way of telling a story and these photos remind us that people have been fleeing conflict and persecution throughout history.” 

Photograph by David Seymour. Refugees waiting for Unicef milk at the refugee camp in Ioannina, Greece, 1948.

Photograph by Lorenzo Meloni. A family stands on what is left of their home in Syria.

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Portraits of Syrian child refugees by Muhammed Muheisen

Muhammed Muheisen is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winning photographer and the Chief Photographer for the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan for the Associated Press. About half of the 4.8 million Syrians who have fled their homeland are children, and some of the most vulnerable live in dozens of makeshift tent camps. Children in these camps near the northern Jordanian city of Mafraq say they miss their old lives in Syria. The way Muheisen took his portraits are really similar with my project. He added each children’s wish next to their portraits. 

Mona Emad, five, from Hasakah: ‘I want to go back to Syria but my father told us that he wants to go to the United States of America.’

Mohammed Bandar, 12, from Hama: ‘I want to become a doctor to be able to help people.’

Rakan Raslan, 11, from Hama: ‘“I used to go to the school back in Hama. I used to have friends there. Our home was destroyed in the war and we had to flee to Jordan.’

Mayada Hammid, eight, from Hasakah: ‘I remember nothing from Syria.’

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The Print Space Visit

Gavin took us to the Print Space today. It was a good opportunity to be able to see the procedure and every single material they use in its own space. One of their employees gave us a talk about their services. First he explained all type of papers and gave some opinion about which type of photograph would look good on each paper. They are using C-Type papers and also gyclée paper (inkjet). Its easier to see details with C-Type paper while gyclée paper renders colours more accurately. It is important to do some test strips before deciding a type of paper as it influence the final prints. The Print Space offers mounting and also many different type of frames. Their website is helpful as well so its really easy to register and order online. As long as my budget is enough, I am definitely planning to use the Print Space for my final prints for the major project.

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Powerful Photographs of Syrian Refugees in 2015/2016

During my research, I wanted to understand what they have been through more deeply. It’s difficult to talk with a Syrian refugee about the war time or ask questions about how they escape from their country. So I decided to search their stories. I had chance to find some strong images which represents how they feel and what they have been through in all these time. It’s really hard for the families however its a lot harder for the children. They don’t have any other choice instead of being together with their family and when they suppose to play games on the streets, they had to cross countries and seas for days and weeks. Their friends, siblings dies in front of them. It’s impossible to handle all these feelings when you are just a kid. What we are trying to do as a charity organisation is to make them feel comfortable as much as we can and also take care of their needs, assist them to make it easier to find a house, school and with this project, I am trying to show how fast and easy it is to make them smile and make them feel secure and happy again. Here are some images that I found during my research, which can also be inspiration for me to understand their background story more deeply.

Photograph by Zohra Bensemra. Yasmine a 6-year-old from Deir Al Zour, Syria, cries at the beach after arriving at Lesbos. She said the dress her grandmother gave her had been thrown away by the men who brought her family here across the narrow sea from Bodrum, Turkey.

Photograph by Aris Messinis. Refugees arrive in Lesbos after crossing from Turkey. Many Syrian families with small children are currently forced to walk a distance longer than the Athens Marathon from the beaches where they land to the points of registration near the port capital of Mytilene.

Photograph by Giorgos Moutafis. Volunteer doctors try to revive a baby on Lesbos after a boat carrying more than 200 people sank while crossing from Turkey.

Photograph by Pacific Press. A young boy sleeps in Bapska, Symia, as he waits to cross the Serbian-Croatian border.

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During my research, I found out the REFUGEE exhibition which is related to my photography project. The photographs were taken in Bangladesh, Cameroon, Colombia, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Mexico, Myanmar, Serbia, Slovenia, and the United States. With this exhibition they are trying to show their efforts to survive, their needs, their dreams and their hopes for a better future. I can easily say that seeing another project similar to what I’m trying to do, helps a lot to improve my ideas and plans.

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Session with Armenoui Kasparian Saraidari

Today we had a really interesting session with Armenoui who is a practitioner and focusing on personal archives, memory, post-memory and traumas. She is interested in photography and it’s use as a referent that bares witness to the traumatic events of the Armenian Genocide and Diaspora. She used her family archives to look into the family members she has never met. I found her archive and the story really interested and powerful. The way we see the notes on the images in her “The Survivors” project, were like it was telling a story on its own I felt really emotional even though I didn’t know anyone in those photographs. She explains it as “Photographs are modes of representation that entail; the image, the objects, their physical attributes as well as their social function. What we remember today is the continuation of Survivors, our history.” Family archives as a way of communication. I believe this will be the same idea for my portraits in my major projects. It is so important to express the feelings inside the portrait through the audience. What I need to do is to get the best moment of each kid, to see whats behind that portrait, understand their happiness and sadness from their eyes, try to guess what could be their story from their faces.

The Survivors, 2013, Armenoui Kasparian Saraidari

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Major Project Proposal Presentation

Today I had my presentation to all our group. I explained my ideas; what I really want to do with this project, what will be the message and my plans for the shooting. I also gave some information about the charity organisation for the ones who never listened anything about my project topic. People were excited to see the result of my project which makes me feel proud about it. Few people gave me some suggestions about the questions that I should ask to the children. Some of them tried to help with the locations and the camera process which helped me to see the same project in another perspective. I will remember all of this suggestions when I actually start my shooting.

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Plans for the Major Project

Today I’ve made my 3 weeks plan for helping the children in Istanbul. Firstly I tried to contact with all the families who needs help, to learn about their recent needs and anything they would want. Afterwards I talked with all the volunteers and also made some posts on social media accounts to tell everything the children needed. I still have some time before I go back to Istanbul and during that time, volunteers will be able to send all the needs to my storage address. When I fly back to Istanbul, I will be ready to visit all the families and give their needs. Here are some images from my previous helps; 

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Beyond The Ordinary by Goran Jovic

 Goran Jovic is an inspiring photographer who was two different awards from ��BW Child Photography”. Instead of him being a good example as a photographer, I find some similarities between us as he is always into charity works. One of his projects; “Beyond the Ordinary”  which is the most powerful and effective project he did, in my opinion. The project was located in a small village in Tanzania. He shot the kids in a primary school which is consists of three shabby buildings: a small classroom without electricity, a staff room and a kitchen. He described it as “As soon as you step into the classroom, the murmur stops and all eyes are set on you.  Those eyes are the silent witnesses of the life in Tanzania. Every day they eat the same meal and the saddest part of the story is the fact that too many children go to school only because of that one meal. They have nothing to eat and all they dream of is a decent meal. Hunger for knowledge is replaced by true hunger. Have you ever heard of this before? Their ordinary day is a never ending fight for survival. Worn out school uniforms are children’s only item of clothing but they proudly wear their green sweaters which are the only symbol of the education process in their village. Something should be done to help them because those children need to know that they are no ordinary children. They live their lives to the best of their abilities and that is beyond ordinary. Those children are worthy of our admiration.”  He finished the project in there and also helped all children which I really want to do for this project and also for my future career.

“The Line” Second Place in The Street & Documentary Category.

His project is so relevant to what I’m trying to do for my project. When I compare his portraits with my previous test shootings, I realised that colours distract us from the real meaning of the feeling or a certain situation. So I decided to change my colourful portraits plan to black&white portraits.