Ant Oraloglu
Photograph
My earliest memory with photography would be when I was about 10 years old. I was buying cheap plastic 35mm cameras and trying to photograph birds with no success.
When did art become a pursuit?
Although my parents were involved in some type of art (My dad is an Actor and My Mom was a ballerina when she was young) my pursuit came later in life. First it started in my senior year at college. I had to take an elective class and I chose photography thinking it would be easy, so I could focus on my other classes. But I have to say that recently Fine Art photography came to be a real passion of mine.
I am going to have to say both.
After college. I went to New England School Of Photography where I learned most of the basic techniques involved with digital photography, film photography and lighting.
The last couple years, I’ve been spending a lot of time on YouTube learning and seeing new things, so I can build further my knowledge.
Photograph
I don’t remember how but I saw a flyer or ad about CAA and got my membership. My first juried exhibition was “Miniature” in 2017.
So, this one is a hard question to answer for me. I am not one of those intellectual people who can talk about art and their craft for hours but I will do my best.
First of all I do my craft for selfish reasons. Taking pictures is an outlet for me. That is when I feel totally happy and undisturbed from everything around me. I just focus on what I would like to photograph. I do not get that raw, organic feeling from anything else besides when I am rock climbing.
I like to think that my pictures don’t have intended messages but rather, are understood subconsciously: that is how I communicate with my viewer.
To stay in topic
Artists have many roles in our society. Can you imagine a world that did not have any kind of art? Imagine how boring our life would be. That being said, as a society, our lives are becoming more robotic. We wake up, go to work (or school), come back home and in between we are addicted to checking our cellphones. Our job as artists should break the repetitive habits we all have in our life and introduce creative, emotional and intellectual interaction with our creative medium to our viewers. It is as simple as that.
There are so many artists and pieces of art all around for us to look, see, and feel. Some of them are free if you go to a local art gallery. I urge everyone to go to your local gallery, go to a museum, go to BSO, and immerse yourself with something creative. Who knows, maybe you will get inspired to create something of your own.
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I only focus on photography because Intentional composition and lighting are unique to photography, and that’s why I love it.
Finding an idea to photograph is a totally random process for me. A random idea could pop to my mind during a conversation or watching a movie, or just during exercise. I was never able to generate ideas if I forced myself to think. After I have a project in my mind, I do a lot of thinking about how to light and how to compose. For example, with my latest and favorite project (self-portraits) I usually take only 4 pictures each session because I do so much thinking about the shoot; it is a very intentional process.
I have three favorite places.
ICA Boston, Museum of Fine Arts and Moma.
SEE MORE ANT!
Website: www.antsphoto.com
Instagram: @antsphotostudio