Website

http://www.muratgermen.com

Relationship status

married

College / University

M.I.T.

Program

Department of Architecture

Member type

Artist

If you're an artist, what kind of art do you make?

Conceptual, Digital, Photography

I am...

Has a BS degree in city planning from Technical University of Istanbul and an MArch degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he went as a Fulbright scholar and received AIA Henry Adams Gold Medal for academic excellence. Works as a professor of photography and multimedia design at Sabanci University in Istanbul. Previously worked for various state and private universities such as Bilkent, Yeditepe, Istanbul Technical, Yildiz and Bilgi University; teaching various topics. Has submitted work for distinguished publishers / organizations such as; Istanbul Modern Museum of Art, Young&Rubicam / Reklamevi, Link McCann Erickson, The Designory, Norman Foster&Partners, Medina&Turgul DDB Advertising Agency, Aga Khan Architectural Awards in Geneva, Siemens, Koc Holding, Yapi Kredi Culture and Art Publishers, Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, Economic & Social History Foundation of Turkey, etc. Having many articles / photo series published on architecture / photography / art / digital design at various magazines and books; he has been invited to several seminars, symposia and conferences like SIGGRAPH, Mutamorphosis, CAe 2008, CAC2, EVA-London’08, eCAADe, ASCAAD to lecture on pertinent topics. Has opened over thirty national / international (Turkey, USA, Italy, UK, Mexico, Portugal, Uzbekistan, Greece, Japan) exhibitions. Has received national / international awards (like second place award in 2007 and honorable mentions in IPA years 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, Px3 2007 and IVRPA 2007) for work on photography, design and architecture. Has been invited as jury member for eminent national photography competitions.

About my artwork

Photography is an opportunity for me to find things that people ignore and bring them forward to make people reconsider on such disregarded matters. I am not interested in glory since it is already covered by many and receives more attention than needed due to mankind's unending interest in celebrities, sensation... I concentrate on ordinary things and latent extraordinariness in regularity. It is easy to take ordinary photos of extraordinariness but more challenging to take extraordinary photos of ordinariness. The key point is reflecting one’s inner world with a genuine and idiosyncratic way: “Do not follow the suggested agenda, do your own thing...”

Artists I like

citing some means forgetting / ignoring others, there are a lot of artists that i like...

Interests

extensive travelling, deep involvement in politics, nature...

What exhibitions are good at the moment?

saw a Bernd&Hilla Becher exhibition lately at MoMA New York and enjoyed it very much...

The centre of the artworld is

nowhere and everywhere