Murat Germen: Beauty out of ordinary
Under - Art, Inspiration, Photography
Murat Germen, based in Istanbul, Turkey, uses photography as an expression and research tool. He works as a professor of art, photography and new media at the Sabanci University in Istanbul. His work has been featured all over the world and can be found at institutions such as Istanbul Modern, Young & Rubicam, McCann Erickson, The Designory, Norman Foster & Partners, DDB, Rafineri, Swissôtel and Boyner to name a few.
Photography is an opportunity for me to find things people ignore and bring them forward to make people reconsider their ideas. I am not interested in extraordinary things since they are always covered and receive more attention due to mankind’s unending interest in celebrities, fame, sensation… I try to concentrate more on ordinary things and catch possible latent extraordinariness in regularity. It is easy to take ordinary photos of extraordinary things but more challenging to take extraordinary photos of ordinary things. It is possible to say I tend to concentrate on extracting beauty out of ordinary. I attempt to defamiliarize ordinariness, render it ambiguous by alienating it from its familiar context and finally make people to ‘see it afresh.’
Murat has an MArch degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he went as a Fulbright scholar and received AIA Henry Adams Gold Medal for academic excellence.
Photography records the surface information, where one can only depict the exterior features of objects (color, texture, shape, etc.) and the resulting visual representation cannot incorporate the internal condition / content / soul.
The combination of digital means and artistic practice is of prime importance. The computational dimension is indispensable and allows me to visualize anything that I perceive / conceive. The technological advances in imaging and its post-processing changed the way I observe, imagine, create and share my artworks.
Art, Inspiration, Istanbul, MIT, Murat Germen, Photography, post-processing, Sabanci University, Turkey 
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6 thoughts to “Murat Germen: Beauty out of ordinary”
carrie harper
These are the coolest photos/paintings I’ve ever seen! I’m so curious about the process. It looks somehow ancient yet uber modern at the same time. Fantastic work, I would love to see them in person
Haluk Sargın
Çok başarılı bir iş çıkarmışsınız. Tebriklerimle
flo
Wow, absolutely amazing! I had to stop for several minutes at the “asian winter image” …wow this reminded me of so much without I’ve ever been there… thank you!
brig
Content aware scale baby! Content aware! that’s what he used to make the “out of ordinary” photos…..the content aware scale will start to distort the images just as you see here…..just squeeze the image and you will see important lines thru-out the photo disappear!
murat germen
brush and paint baby! these are what painters use make paintings. just get a brush and some paint… but not everybody can paint…
a digital camera, lenses and software baby! these are what people use to make photographs these days. just get them and start shooting… but not everybody can create art…
pencil and paper baby! these are what people use to write. just get them and start writing… but not everybody can write novels / poems…
MEHMET YILMAZEL
Hocam,
Gerçekten yüreğinize sağlık.Ne sizi eleştirecek yetkinlikteyin ne de kimsenin yetkin olsa da olmasa da bunu yapmasını istiyorum.
Bana yeni bir ufuk ve görsel bir dünya açtınız ve bunu ilk defa siz yaptınız ve ben sizi artık kendinize ait bu çalışmayla hatırlayacağım.
Bunun adı kişilik;bunun adı yaratıcılık kısaca bunun adı üreticilik.Bu dur insanı insan yapan.Bu dur akademiyi okumanıza sebep olan.Bu
dur hayatı anlamlı kılan.
Ne mutlu ki size böyle bir yeteneğiniz ve özgün bir yaratıcılığınız var.Bunu var eden herşey’e ama herşey’e şükredin,teşekkür edin.
Ve bu yolda devam edin.Amacınız asla para kazanmak olmasın.Asıl amacınız yeni varlıklar ortaya çıkartmak olsun;yaratmak değil.Çünkü yaratmak biz ölümlülere ait birşey değil.Ama ben varolanlardan yarattıklarınızı bir kere daha hayranlıkla ve de büyük bir keyifle izledim.Teşekkürler ediyorum.
İyi ki varsınız;iyi ki bu kadar VARSILSINIZ.
Hoş Kalın;Hoşça Kalın.
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