Artist Statement
One cannot reveal itself without the other;
Light is only light because darkness stands beside it.
Good means nothing without evil.
Without your opposite, you cannot be.
You cannot resist,
You cannot fight.
Oppositions that reject each other,
are fiercer than resemblance
Because they must collide.
Meaning demands contrast.
Opposition is not a fracture.
It is force.
It is true.
It seeks meaning.
Seek it.
Find your opposite.
İnci Asal
There’s a whisper in the lens. It speaks of journeys not taken with feet but with eyes. I look, and the world splits. A familiar street becomes two; one standing, one turned inside out. It’s like seeing a memory and its ghost, side by side.
In this split view, I find myself traveling without moving. The quiet rooftop finds its loud echo. The wide-open sky meets its own reflection in a mirrored world. It’s in these two halves that the whole story begins to surface. Not just what is, but what it could be, or what it was.
Sometimes, a picture feels like a home I almost knew, then lost. The first image is the knowing; the second, is the searching. And between them, in that thin dividing line, is the heart of it all. The missing piece that makes the whole picture truly breathe. It’s in this seeing of opposites, this wandering through joined views, that I find a kind of truth, a place where everything belongs, precisely because it has its other half.
Özgür Kalender
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Project Information
This collection was created as a special selection for apart, produced collaboratively by İnci Asal and Özgür Kalender in 2020, and later exhibited as a distinct selection during the “Open Studio Days”.
The project reflects a shared visual language shaped through dialogue, intuition, and experimentation. Working with half-frame analog photography, the artists approached seeing not only as documentation, but as a way of thinking together, mirroring, contrasting, and confronting one another’s gaze. The outcome is a layered narrative composed of oppositions and repetitions, subjectivity and symmetry, chance and intention.
Equipment Information
A half-frame film camera is a type of film camera that captures images on half the standard frame size. Instead of the usual 35mm film frame, which is 36x24mm, a half-frame camera divides this frame in half, resulting in images that are approximately 18×24 mm in size. This format allows photographers to take two images on a single film frame, effectively doubling the number of photos taken on a roll of film. Half-frame cameras were popular during the 1960s and 1970s and offered a unique and creative way to capture multiple shots in a single film roll.
Camera: Olympus Pen EE-3
Films: Porta 400, Fujifilm 200, and Centurai 200
Development Notes
Some photos process special film development, called film soup, which involves handling chemicals like dishwashing liquid, alcohol, silica, and ink, which can be hazardous, and it’s essential to follow safety guidelines and use appropriate equipment when working with such substances. If you’re planning to work with film soup, it’s essential to inform the lab beforehand.
The film must be developed separately, as the chemical alterations from the soup process can contaminate and damage other films during development.
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