Statement

The work is concerned with thresholds: the places where one thing stops being itself and becomes the next, and the cost of crossing them.

In photography this appears as sequence. Doorways, ice, tunnel mouths, the last few metres before a forest becomes something else — photographed as evidence rather than metaphor, and published in a fixed order because order carries information.

In fiction it appears as a question about substitution. Both published stories concern systems built to hold someone in place after they should have been let go, and the people who agree to those systems for reasons that look, at the time, exactly like love.

The two bodies of work make one argument in two registers. A photograph can establish that a threshold exists; it cannot follow anyone across. Prose can.

Note

Written work is developed in dialogue with AI tools. The drafting is collaborative; the final voice, its omissions and the artistic responsibility rest with the author. This is stated on each published story rather than left to be inferred.

Biography

Şafak Karakulak works in photography and short fiction. Photographic work has been made continuously since 2014. Short fiction was first published in Turkish; Görünmez İpler received the Wattpad Yazma Günleri award in November 2019. Selected earlier work is currently being translated into English.

He is based in Switzerland.

Enquiries

Prints, licensing, publication and translation enquiries are welcome via the contact page.