Ποιειν Και Πραττειν - create and do

Izzet Keribar

Izzet Keribar was a participant of the OSMOSIS Photo Exhibition when the works of Greek photographers looking out, while other photographers looked in, were shown in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, and this under the auspices of Alecos Alavanos.

Prior to Strasbourg, he showed photos as well in a workshop session at Poiein kai Prattein in Athens. He left many traces like this amazing photo of an Indian man whose wrinkles in the face resemble so much the folds in his sultan. Timeless seems to be his age. His face is full of life’s wisdom. More amazing is how he looks as if his eyes can sense things similar to how we smell a flower or hear the sea tossed about by the reckless wind. Needless to say every photo needs light to exist.

                               

                                                         Photo by Izzet Keribar

One unique aspect of Keribar is that he grew up with a Greek nanny and hence speaks fluently Greek as he does many other languages. That made him not into a wanderer through Greece when coming here before going together with the other photographers to Strasbourg, but into someone who knows history and its people from childhood.

He travels far and to many countries. At the same time, Istanbul is his home. His photographic work reflects this unique combination of international flavor and the colorit of Istanbul. That makes him be attentive to things not merely to be imagined but to be seen. A prerequisite for that is to have been there in order to be seen as it is. That applies as well to the wailing wall in Jerusalem where men not only gather to pray and to show their devotion to life, but also exchange news pasted on the walls for everyone who comes along to read and then to discuss. A life without comments to the daily news is like a river bed without water. The images Izzet Kerribar evokes are in reality powerful metaphors taken from split seconds in real life.

  Jews at the wailing wall                                                Photo by Izzet Keribar

He travels far and to many countries. At the same time, Istanbul is his home. Thus his photographic work reflects this unique combination of international flavor and the colorit of Istanbul. That makes him being so attentive to things not merely to be imagined but to be seen.

A prerequisite for all of that is to have been there, in order to see as it is. That applies as well to the wailing wall in Jerusalem where men not only gather to pray and to show their devotion to life, but also exchange news pasted on the walls for everyone who comes along to read and then to discuss.

A life without comments to the daily news is like a river bed without water. The images Izzet Keribar evokes are in reality powerful metaphors taken from split seconds in real life.

Lately he returned from Iran to send a slight selection out of 4000 photos he took while climbing steep stairs despite aching knees, and not being able to enter a mosque except by disguising himself as a woman. That already says something about a man not easily to be stopped in his venture to go into places often never seen, never mind realized by many others that such places of beauty do exist.

Hatto Fischer

Athens 2014 

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