Solitude: A Photography Exhibition
by Mustafa Kocabasi

The Gallery at The Marmara-Manhattan
301 East 94th Street
(at Second Avenue)
New York, NY 10128

March 19-April 20, 2004
Reception: April 1, 2004
6:00 pm-8:00 pm
Gallery hours: 11:00 am-7:00 pm daily

Solitude Cannot Be Shared

In terms of the life and the fortune doled out to each human, no two persons are equal. Nor is equality to be found in the conditions surrounding death. For the helpless and those in need, the last opportunity to see the celestial night sky may avail itself in a fortress on the periphery of existence: the D¸sk¸nlerevi. This collection of rooms, an edifice built on social alienation, is where many of society's helpless members spend their last days.

The D¸sk¸nlerevi is where the physically and mentally impaired, the old and infirm, and those who have no one else to turn to are brought together for unbeknownst reasons to pass their days. It is a place where there is little room for individual stories and where the past is comprised of bits and pieces of memories.

Mustafa Kocabasi captures its inhabitants - itinerant travellers on the paths between life and death, hope and hopelessness. Careful to conceal any reactions to the presence of the photographer, the subjects nonetheless convey a message. The mood of Kocabasi's photographs is governed by pain and sadness, but there is also a desire on the part of the subjects to 'show themselves' to someone, anyone. Each photograph becomes a medium to convey a message; the photographer, although an Other, is also a vital artery for those on the 'inside' to communicate with the outside world.

As a fine art, photography is a solitary endeavor. In less than a splitsecond, and in a state of acute isolation, the photographer is left to filter all of his or her thoughts through a lens. After many years of stowing away these images, Mustafa Kocabasi, who is well known for his fantastically staged compositions, shares his documentary photographs of the D¸sk¸nlerevi.

It was while still in the academy that Kocabasi first turned his lens on the subjects of this exhibition. And while many of those captured in Kocabasi's documentary style black and white photographs have probably parted from this world, they leave behind a permanent imprint-a testament to the photograph's singular ability to reject the disappearance of memory.

Without excuse or apology for the grim reality of the D¸sk¸nlerevi, Kocabasi's work reflects the artist's awareness of his own imminent mortality. The photographs movingly urge the viewer to take in the world of solitude in its full complexity - and with a generous dose of compassion.

Merih Akogul
Photographer and photography critic

Our special thanks to Mine ÷zpinar and Zishan Ugurlu of The Gallery at The Marmara-Manhattan, and Ali «etinkaya of Gallery 53.