Murat Yazar
Murat Yazar is a Kurdish photographer from Eastern Turkey. He studied Tourism at Harran University in Turkey. Yazar has been working as a freelance photographer since 2008. He has created photo projects in his home country Kurdistan, in the Middle East, Armenia, Georgia, Iran and Europe. Murat crossed Anatolia into Georgia by walking 1200 km as part of the Out of Eden Walk project. Murat Yazar has been based in Italy since 2017.
Grants and Awards Include:
• Pulitzer Center grant: Lost Paradise-Tigris and Euphrates river system. 2024
• Shadows of Kurdistan "Istituto italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente" (ISMEO) e Istituto Kurdo di Roma
• Collaboration project with Rochester and Cornell universities: After curfew Silvan and Sur in Turkey.
• The Grand Prize winner of 2020 Banff Mountain Photo Essay Competition in 2020
• W. Eugene Smith Grant 2024
Publications Include:
• National Geographic Magazine / • Now Magazine, Canada / • IZ Magazine, Turkey / • Le Courrier, Swiss / • The New York Times, US / • Artribune magazine, Italy / • Travel Globe Magazine, Italy / • Saiten Magazine, Swissn/ • Yale 360
Exhibitions Include:
• BarrObjektif Festival, France in 2015 / • Centre Cívic Can Basté, Spain in 2014
Ararat-After The Flood:
• Visa pour l'Image Perpignan, France in 2022 (screening show)
• Zoom Photo Festival, Canada in 2023
• Castelnuovo di Porto foto festival in Italy in 2024
Shadows of Kurdistan - A photographic research of a cultural identity;
• Babel Film Festival, Italy in 2019
• Zoom Photo Festival Saguenay, Canada in 2018
• Paris Kurdish İnstitute, France in 2021
• Diversify Photo - Photovile, New York in USA in 2024
Saturday Mothers:
Cegerxwin Cultural Center, Diyarbakir in 2012
A walk through Anatolia:
• BarrObjektif Festival, France in 2016
Website: https://www.muratyazar.info
Instagram: @muratyazar_photographer
Murat Yazar Folio
“praxinoscope” number 8
“Shadows of Kurdistan” by Murat Yazar
Kurdish cultural identity has been under attack for over 100 years, ever since 1916 when Kurdistan was split among the countries of Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria by European powers. The Shadows of Kurdistan photographic project seeks to explore the dimensions and depth of Kurdish culture and their political situation, where there is a civil war in three of the four countries. It seeks to illuminate what can be lost without peace, but also to show that war is not only part of the Kurdish experience, and that there is still a full life and vibrant culture.
All Kurdish communities have undergone assimilation; we have not been allowed to live our culture freely and learn our language or history. This project seeks to help discover the common human cultural identity of the Kurdish people. An additional goal of this project is underscoring the importance of respecting all cultural identities, not to divide us, but to foster understanding among people.
The thirty million Kurds have not seen much peace over the century since partition, for us Kurds the peace is like the story in the book by Samuel Beckett: Waiting for Godot. But in the background of war, there is a strong and deep heritage. These images capture the culture, daily life, political situation and landscapes of Kurdistan. The project has taken a slow journalism approach to photography, staying in the areas and going deep into the nuances of the situation for each community.
Human history can be told in many different ways; with this project, my goal is to show and talk about Kurdistan by photography.
