If Only You Knew
Photo book‘If only you knew…’ or ‘Bir bilsen…’ in Turkish. That’s how many women start sharing the story of their lives with photographer Çiğdem Yüksel. These women’s stories remind her of her own grandmother, they all left their homes in Turkey to start a new life in the Netherlands. Their stories are starkly absent in our visual archives.
Yüksel brings about change in that lack of representation by sharing their photographs from family albums, interviews and portraits. The women speak about the pain of migration, homesickness, of getting lost and finding your way. Working, taking care of children, learning the language. Love and unhappy marriages. Being restricted as a woman and emancipation. Their contribution to the Dutch economy as factory workers or cleaners, and their struggle for freedom and equal rights. The stories are diverse, layered, ambiguous – just like any other human experience.
A number of these women were captured in the ‘70s by photographer Bertien van Manen in Vrouwen te Gast (‘Women as Guests’) (1979). Yüksel searched to find them and take new portraits. Now in their sixties and eighties, time is running out to give them a place in Dutch history.
This book (€ 39,95) can be ordered in Dutch, English, and Turkish.
Order here
Credits:
Research, interviews and photography: Çiğdem Yüksel
Concept: Çiğdem Yüksel, Eefje Blankevoort, Frederiek Biemans
Texts: Hızır Cengiz
Essays: Merel Bem, Sinan Çankaya, Hızır Cengiz, Suzanna Jansen, Meral Polat
Historical text: Mila Lemmens (Stichting BMP)
Editing: Eefje Blankevoort & Frederiek Biemans
Tekst editing: Lara Aerts, Çiğdem Yüksel
Translation English: Roxy Merrell, Janey Tucker, Ruth Hopkins
Translation Turkish: Hanneke van der Heijden, Aslı Güneş
Photo editing: Çiğdem Yüksel, Frederiek Biemans, Frits Giertsberg.
Design: Kummer & Herrman
Photograhy Vrouwen te Gast: Bertien van Manen
Assistant Bertien van Manen: Iris Bergman
Lithography: Marc Gijzen
Printing: NPN Drukkers
Projectleiding: Laura Verduijn, Prospektor
Publisher: Laurence Ostyn, nai010 uitgevers
Assistents research & photography: Seleme Aydın, Afsaneh Ghafarian Rabe’I, Zehra Göktaş, Ece Meşe, Simaa al-Saig, Dimitri Valentijn
Assistents transcriptions: Zehra Göktaş, Seleme Aydın, Ece Meşe, Yasir Aydemir, Fatoş Ipek-Demir, Figan Tuncer, Cihan Sever, Deniz Şükür, Fatma Şeker, Aylin Bayram, Izem Zeybekoğlu, Aslı Özgen, Alkım Belevi, Nur Semerci, Hatice Nurlu.
Research, interviews and photography: Çiğdem Yüksel
Concept: Çiğdem Yüksel, Eefje Blankevoort, Frederiek Biemans
Texts: Hızır Cengiz
Essays: Merel Bem, Sinan Çankaya, Hızır Cengiz, Suzanna Jansen, Meral Polat
Historical text: Mila Lemmens (Stichting BMP)
Editing: Eefje Blankevoort & Frederiek Biemans
Tekst editing: Lara Aerts, Çiğdem Yüksel
Translation English: Roxy Merrell, Janey Tucker, Ruth Hopkins
Translation Turkish: Hanneke van der Heijden, Aslı Güneş
Photo editing: Çiğdem Yüksel, Frederiek Biemans, Frits Giertsberg.
Design: Kummer & Herrman
Photograhy Vrouwen te Gast: Bertien van Manen
Assistant Bertien van Manen: Iris Bergman
Lithography: Marc Gijzen
Printing: NPN Drukkers
Projectleiding: Laura Verduijn, Prospektor
Publisher: Laurence Ostyn, nai010 uitgevers
Assistents research & photography: Seleme Aydın, Afsaneh Ghafarian Rabe’I, Zehra Göktaş, Ece Meşe, Simaa al-Saig, Dimitri Valentijn
Assistents transcriptions: Zehra Göktaş, Seleme Aydın, Ece Meşe, Yasir Aydemir, Fatoş Ipek-Demir, Figan Tuncer, Cihan Sever, Deniz Şükür, Fatma Şeker, Aylin Bayram, Izem Zeybekoğlu, Aslı Özgen, Alkım Belevi, Nur Semerci, Hatice Nurlu.
If Only You Knew
Photo book
‘If only you knew…’ or ‘Bir bilsen…’ in Turkish. That’s how many women start sharing the story of their lives with photographer Çiğdem Yüksel. These women’s stories remind her of her own grandmother, they all left their homes in Turkey to start a new life in the Netherlands. Their stories are starkly absent in our visual archives.
Yüksel brings about change in that lack of representation by sharing their photographs from family albums, interviews and portraits. The women speak about the pain of migration, homesickness, of getting lost and finding your way. Working, taking care of children, learning the language. Love and unhappy marriages. Being restricted as a woman and emancipation. Their contribution to the Dutch economy as factory workers or cleaners, and their struggle for freedom and equal rights. The stories are diverse, layered, ambiguous – just like any other human experience.
A number of these women were captured in the ‘70s by photographer Bertien van Manen in Vrouwen te Gast (‘Women as Guests’) (1979). Yüksel searched to find them and take new portraits. Now in their sixties and eighties, time is running out to give them a place in Dutch history.
This book (€ 39,95) can be ordered in Dutch,
English, and Turkish.
Order here
Credits:
Research, interviews and photography: Çiğdem Yüksel
Concept: Çiğdem Yüksel, Eefje Blankevoort, Frederiek Biemans
Texts: Hızır Cengiz
Essays: Merel Bem, Sinan Çankaya, Hızır Cengiz, Suzanna Jansen, Meral Polat
Historical text: Mila Lemmens (Stichting BMP)
Editing: Eefje Blankevoort & Frederiek Biemans
Tekst editing: Lara Aerts, Çiğdem Yüksel
Translation English: Roxy Merrell, Janey Tucker, Ruth Hopkins
Translation Turkish: Hanneke van der Heijden, Aslı Güneş
Photo editing: Çiğdem Yüksel, Frederiek Biemans, Frits Giertsberg. Translation Turkish: Hanneke van der Heijden, Aslı Güneş
Design: Kummer & Herrman
Photograhy Vrouwen te Gast: Bertien van Manen
Assistant Bertien van Manen: Iris Bergman
Lithography: Marc Gijzen
Printing: NPN Drukkers
Projectleiding: Laura Verduijn, Prospektor
Publisher: Laurence Ostyn, nai010 uitgevers
Assistents research & photography: Seleme Aydın, Afsaneh Ghafarian Rabe’I, Zehra Göktaş, Ece Meşe, Simaa al-Saig, Dimitri Valentijn
Assistents transcriptions: Zehra Göktaş, Seleme Aydın, Ece Meşe, Yasir Aydemir, Fatoş Ipek-Demir, Figan Tuncer, Cihan Sever, Deniz Şükür, Fatma Şeker, Aylin Bayram, Izem Zeybekoğlu, Aslı Özgen, Alkım Belevi, Nur Semerci, Hatice Nurlu.