More similar than different: Curator Elie Gardner on The Everyday Projects at FotoIstanbul
For the second annual Everyday Projects photo exhibit at FotoIstanbul, curator Elie Gardner looked through more than 20,000 images from her cell phone screen to make a final selection of about 100 for the show. Though Elie simply looked for interesting images at first, she quickly noticed visual repetitions across the 28 accounts, ranging from Vietnam and Guatemala to Iraq and Moldova.
“Working on my laptop, I felt so frustrated because I couldn’t visualize the exhibit, and I wanted to try to put myself in the environment so I printed out the little pictures and put up the pieces of paper in the same formation that represented the exhibit,” said curator Elie Gardner about how she decided on placement of images in the exhibit.
Right: Installation of images at The Everyday Projects exhibit at Fotoistanbul. Photos by Elie Gardner.
“Your mind gets a bit foggy when you look at so many pictures, and I would think ‘Am I looking at Latin America or Asia?’ Sometimes the pictures looked so similar — the moments or the environment. They could be pictures taken in Nepal and look just like pictures from Peru. So, it was just reinforcing that actually deep down we’re all more similar than different,” Elie said.
To communicate this idea, Elie placed images in pairs and groupings based on connections such as theme, moments, color, and composition. Doing so was not just about creating a visually pleasing experience, but also a chance to teach something.
Elie says what makes the exhibit interesting is not the singular images themselves but rather seeing the pictures all together. “It’s like what Aristotle said, ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts’…if you just look at one picture of an umbrella, it’s pretty, but when you look at nine pictures of people using an umbrella, you learn about nine different places in the world and can compare how they use it.”
Photographs of umbrellas from different parts of the world on view at the Everyday Projects exhibit. Photo by Holly Picket.
Photo byHai Thanh.
Photo by Misha Vallejo.
Photo by Viktor Braga.
Photo by Koray Tastan.
Photo by Gokhan Degirmenci.
Photo by Ciprian Hord.
Photo by Ramin Mazur.
Photo by Gabriel Rojas.
The concept of finding familiarity really struck a chord with viewers. What Elie noticed the most at the exhibit was people taking “selfies” and photos with photographs that resembled themselves. A woman posed for a picture with her child, mimicking the embrace between a mother and baby in the photo behind her. A teenage girl took a selfie in front of a picture of another teenage girl from the other side of the world. A woman from Saudi Arabia photographed a picture that showed Sri Lankan women wearing a black abaya and hijab like hers. “You could tell it meant a lot to her to see that image,” Elie said.
Visitors viewing The Everyday Projects photo exhibit at FotoIstanbul in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş neighborhood. Photos by Oscar Durand.
According to the festival’s founder, Attila Durak, The Everyday Projects exhibit will receive around 2 million viewers, as it’s situated in a very populated outdoor area of Istanbul’s Beşiktaş neighborhood, home to the dozens of exhibits that make up the festival.
“The place and the space they gave us was extremely conducive to the type of photography that we do…it’s this kind of exhibit within a living exhibit [because] you’re looking at these pictures, but you could turn around and see that moment behind you too,” Elie said.
FotoIstanbul, which closes at the end of this month, features photography from across the world of varying genres. Download the map and program here. Also be sure to check out FotoIstanbul’s Instagram Photo Contest exhibit, organized and curated by The Everyday Projects.
The Everyday Projects photo exhibit is on display at FotoIstanbul until the end of October. Photo by Elie Gardner.
Elie Gardner is a filmmaker and freelance photographer based in Istanbul. She is also co-founder of Everyday Latin America and member of The Everyday Projects Community Team.