Identity is often understood as something a person declares. In practice, it is something that is lived. It appears in gestures, daily routines, language, gaze, and in the way a person occupies space. Most of the time, it is not spoken directly. It is experienced.

Through my photographic practice, I repeatedly return to questions of self-identification and representation. In my projects, I explore how individuals shape their visual identity within contemporary contexts, where tradition, personal experience, and social environment intersect. My interest lies not in appearance as aesthetics, but in the process of self-presentation and the choices people make about how they wish to be seen.

This visual inquiry grew out of my academic work in literature and cultural studies. In my research, I examined the concept of female beauty in Turkic literary traditions, analyzing how ideas of identity, body, and social roles are constructed through language, metaphor, and narrative. Literature became the first space where I encountered the mechanisms through which culture defines and transmits images of the self.

Over time, I began to recognize similar structures within photography. An image, like a text, creates a frame of perception. It can reinforce inherited representations or open space for reinterpretation. At the intersection of visual practice and research, my work developed as a dialogue between observation, collaboration, and reflection.

For many communities, especially Indigenous and local groups, identity is not fixed or nostalgic. It continues to evolve while remaining grounded in place, memory, and everyday practice. Traditions shift, languages adapt, and visual forms change, yet a sense of belonging persists through lived continuity rather than preservation alone.

In this context, photography becomes a method of attentive witnessing rather than definition. It allows identity to emerge through presence instead of declaration. Through both image and research, I seek to observe how belonging is shaped through relationships between people, culture, and environment.

Ultimately, self-identification is not a search for a single answer, but an ongoing process. It unfolds through movement, dialogue, and time, where image and language continue to inform one another.