Living Woman

This is the first women photography group in Turkey that came together after basic photography seminar and started creating works of art. This women photography group produced 6 different projects in 6 years, including members from different professions like academician, student, engineer, secretary, housewife, civil servant, beautician, art director and trades. In the first project in 2011, they stood against the murders and all kinds of abuse of women with the slogan “The Women Alive, just to spite the women who are beaten or killed” and photographed the women who hold on to life. In their second exhibition “Self-portraits”, The Women Alive group turned their cameras to themselves and told all about women in 2012. In “MADAM”, their third project, they photographed men as opposing gender in 2013. They started their photo show with “Madam blew out a breath and Adam was given birth, then Adam forgot that the breath was the life” verses. They realized their fourth project “TIME: A manifest against the cruelty to woman” in 2014. In 2015 they stated “We want to live and die in humanistic ways. We are against the men who kill, rape, use violence and we say THE WOMEN ALIVE for all the women who were victims of these men.” They presented a silent scream photo show named “The Women Alive: We are all one” as their fifth project. The Women Alive’s last project focused on collective memory and woman theme. In their photo show called “Memory”, The Women Alive emphasized that they put an effort to tell the change of woman’s imaginary, cultural and social change in Turkey. The group has been working together for about 6 years. “We said The Women Alive against who kill. Photograph became our mutual point. We got closer with smiles and sharing. EFSAD became our meeting point and The Women Alive became our name. Not only March 8, International Women’s Day unite us but also being human and woman with conscience and telling our stories with photograph…” Akarçay stated about the group.

•  Gülbin Özdamar Akarçay
•  Hülya Avdan
•  Melis Batır
•  Ayşegül Çıkıncı
•  Esra Çolak
•  Sevgi Kösem
•  Solmaz Mercan
•  Sema Tan Omurtak
•  Özlem Kanat Örneksoy
•  Zeynep Özyürek
•  Şükran Tunç