Epicenter Of Covid19 Since World War II, we have not encountered any other important events affecting the whole world so much. The first images from China were terrible. We watched like watching movies from afar.Then we all became actors of this vague and dystopic science fiction movie and we got into it. The countries closed their borders, the economy was hit hard, people became unable to leave their homes.Strangely,everything in the world changed suddenly because of a virus. The biggest difficulty was experienced in hospitals without any doubt. All health professionals worked day and night.
I love being close to events and people that interest me as characters.
For this reason, while I want to photograph Covid19, it is not for me to photograph from a distance, as I usually see.If I was going to shoot, I had to get into the closest, the closest. This was much more difficult because it would both activate the permitting process from all patients(you cant imagine how difficult it is in Turkey) and pull me to the heart of the risk, but it had to be tried. I am married and have two children. It was therefore not easy to decide to enter the epicenter of Covid19 intensive care. Although I did not have a chronic illness, I was a heavy smoker. It was a big risk for me and my family in every sense.
But I knew that I would never forgive myself at the end of this process, which will not be repeated again if I do not enter to intensive care unit and shoot.
I should have photographed a subject that I had to photograph, not a subject that would be good if I took photos.I believe that" I can't change history but I can show it".
This is why I spent 29 days in intensive care,which is the epicenter of Covid19 among all these tides in my mind.
In general, we see that the events that focus on the moment in documentary photography are away from aesthetic anxiety. But, unlike the general one, I also wanted to show that aesthetic photographs can be taken in documentary photography, albeit difficult.The way to do that was to be invisible and not in a hurry by spending a long time there.I have to photograph them without haste. So I stay 29 days in hospital.I observe them.They got used to me and I start to be invisible to those there. This series consists of the photographs I took during that time. I wanted to show people what's happening in a Covid19 intensive care unit clearly.Normal moments in intensive care,arrival of the patient, dressing up and entering the patients' rooms for treatment, and treatment moments also how the doctors and nurses rest and sleep.