Consorting with Artsy Types

Here I am cozying up to Ibrahim Demirel, renown Turkish photographer, curator and gallerist. When we stopped by his art gallery in Ankara late in the day several artists were there, drinking raki and discussing art, salon style. Pretty soon they ordered food and broke out the catalogs and books; I appreciated them letting me hang, both as a woman and as someone who can’t really participate due to the language barrier.
Ibrahim is full of contradictions, like several other Turkish artists I know. He recently created a fantastic photo exhibition about Kurban Bayram, the Sacrifice Holiday, in which he shot the animals being slaughtered in the streets (the bloodshed is coming up, I’ll be sharing its glory with you soon). But he also does slick commercial and non-content based work, as if his Turkish business acumen can’t be held back. I think many American “high artists” wouldn’t sully their names doing both kinds of work. Ibrahim is both extremely generous and in love with his own image; luckily I don’t have this problem.