ALLEGORIES OF CULPABILITY


  • Photographer
    Fatma Bucak
  • Prize
    Honorable Mention
  • Company/Studios
    IED
  • Date of Photograph
    2009
  • Technical Info
    MEDIUM FORMAT(ANALOGICAL)

The images of Allegoria della Colpevolezza are first of all the artist’s selfportrait and an exploration into the psychological complexity of waiting. The rooms immortalised are public spaces of a juvenile prison. Surprisingly, they are incredibly colorful spaces, in strident contrast with our common ideas on how prisons are. In them we can see traces of the prisoners’ attempts to create a seeming normality. My work tries to emphasize the contrast between the sense of being in a cage and the longing for liberty. I “offered” each young boy and girl the “freedom” to decide the stage where to perform their particular scene . Rooms become oppressive caves for their souls, where they cannot escape from their waiting, their identity of sinners. In this sense, an uncanny atmosphere can be found in each picture. Through the use of a remote control cable, prisoners become authors themselves. This cable becomes an umbilical cord, a medium to create a connection with the observers and the outside world. I tried to act as a witness of this process as I had a father in the prison for the political problems in Turkey when I was in their age. This is why the last image of the project was shot outside and roles are inverted: I become the actor myself and the families of prisoners become the authors.

Story

The images of Allegoria della Colpevolezza are first of all the artist’s selfportrait and an exploration into the psychological complexity of waiting.
The rooms immortalised are public spaces of a juvenile prison. Surprisingly, they are incredibly colorful spaces, in strident contrast with our common ideas on how prisons are. In them we can see traces of the prisoners’ attempts to create a seeming normality.
My work tries to emphasize the contrast between the sense of being in a cage and the longing for liberty. I “offered” each young boy and girl the “freedom” to decide the stage where to perform their particular scene. The results are visual narrations of their stories, whishes and feelings. But behind these liberating practices, there is always a wall, a closed door, a lock that bring us and the prisoners back to the reality. Rooms become oppressive caves for their souls, where they cannot escape from their waiting, their identity of sinners. In this sense, an uncanny atmosphere can be found in each picture.
Secondly, scenes are manipulated in order to create a strong relational dimension. Through the use of a remote control cable, prisoners become authors themselves. This cable becomes an umbilical cord, a medium to create a connection with the observers and the outside world. This attempt for a connection is, first of all, directed toward their families, their partners, their daughters. In this way I tried to act as a witness of this process as I had a father in the prison for the political problems in Turkey when I was in their age. This is why the last image of the project was shot outside and roles are inverted: I become the actor myself and the families of prisoners become the authors.

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