La Fabrica exhibits from the 14th of April to the 23th of May For Bird´s Sake. A work that has been published as a photobook and now is presented as an exhibition under the care of the editor Gonzalo Golpe.
The exhibition reunits fifteen photographs by Maria Sturm and Cemre Yesil who have portrayed a practice rooted in the Ottoman Empire which has been adopted by Turkish men for centuries: the keeping of songbirds.
Its geographical location as a transit point on the migratory routes between Africa and Europe and the environmental richness of the area of the Bosphorus, with its forests, lakes and wetlands, has led to the encounter between birds and men through birdsongIt is this fascination, transmitted from father to son, and the close relationship between keepers and birds that led the photographers Maria Sturm and Cemre Yesil to work in this project.
Sturm and Yesil take a subtle approach to this relationship between men and birds, full of contradictions between passion, love and pleasure.
Both photographers have followed these men in the meetings they hold in the cafes of Istanbul every weekend from April to August. In this way, they have captured how the keepers transport the birds in boxes lined with paper or cloth with different styles of wrapping and presenting the cage: from monochrome fabrics to crochet lace and multicolour threads to blue beads to protect the birds from the evil eye
The strength of this tradition is revealed in all its fullness in the singing competitions where, while awaiting their turn to participate, the keepers perform warming-up rituals by stroking the cages, whistling, whispering or playing songs on their mobile phones.
The whole series is based on the struggle between femininity and masculinity: the role of wives, completely disconnected from the finch-keeping process, and the photographers themselves immersed in a totally male world to publicize a custom which is so «ordinary» for those involved
About
Maria Sturm (Ploiesti, Romania, 1985) has lived in Germany since 1991. In 2012 she finished her Photography and Audiovisual Media course at the Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences. She has received numerous awards, such the 2012 New York Photo Award, and ranked third in Erstwerk 2012 with her work ‘Be Good’. She was also a finalist in the fifty-fourth Bourse du Talent event and the scholarship of the German magazine Stern for young photographers. She was also nominated for the 2014 Joop Swart Masterclass.
Cemre Yesil (Istanbul, Turkey, 1987) works in Istanbul and London. With a degree in Photography, she also has a master’s degree in Visual Arts from the University of Sabanci. Currently, she is undertaking a doctoral internship at the London College of Communication. Her work has been exhibited and published in several countries. She has received several awards including the Photographie Competition PARIS (press and portrait). In 2014, she was a finalist for the Paul Huf Award of the Amsterdam Photography Museum (FOAM). Yesil teaches at the Bilgi University in Istanbul and Koç University. Her most recent published work includes The House We Used to Call Home (2014).
