Çamdibi Project
Photography Series, Photobook
16×22CM, 120 Pages, Edition of 3, Self Published
2014—2015
The Çamdibi Project is a photobook documenting a visual exploration of the neighborhood Çamdibi in İzmir, Turkey, between 2014 and 2015. Situated along the Aegean coast, the area serves as a lens to examine themes of identity, urban transformation, and the tensions between localized communities and broader socio-political shifts. Rooted in a critique of neoliberal urbanization, the project interrogates the evolving relationship between space, memory, and collective experience in contemporary Turkey.
Central to the work is an inquiry into the concept of “place” as both a physical and cultural entity. Drawing on Marc Augé’s theory of “non-places”—transitory, impersonal spaces such as airports or shopping malls—the project contrasts Çamdibi’s lingering sense of rootedness against the homogenizing forces of modernity. Unlike Augé’s non-places, Çamdibi retains traces of communal identity, characterized by its layered histories and organic connections to İzmir’s urban fabric. Yet its proximity to the city center positions it ambiguously: neither fully peripheral nor integrated, the neighborhood exists in a state of flux. This duality reflects a broader tension in Turkey’s urban landscape during the mid-2010s, where rapid gentrification and neoliberal policies reshaped spatial hierarchies, often erasing localized narratives in favor of standardized development.
The project also engages with Turkish poet Turgut Uyar’s notion of “vertical and horizontal unhappiness,” a metaphor for the disorientation wrought by modernity’s disruption of temporal and spatial continuity. In Çamdibi, this manifests as a quiet struggle between preservation and transformation. Narrow streets, aging architecture, and informal social hubs coexist with encroaching high-rises and commercial infrastructure, creating a visual dialectic of resistance and assimilation. The photobook captures this interplay through juxtapositions of texture, light, and form, framing the neighborhood as a microcosm of Turkey’s socio-political climate at the time.
Gentrification emerges as a recurring subtext, echoing patterns seen across urban Turkey in 2015. As speculative development reshaped cities, neighborhoods like Çamdibi faced existential questions: Would they retain their distinct identities or dissolve into generic urban sprawl? The project refrains from definitive answers, instead presenting the area as an open-ended narrative—a “visual story” suspended between dystopian erasure and utopian reinvention. This ambiguity mirrors the lived experiences of residents, whose daily lives unfolded against a backdrop of uncertainty.
By situating Çamdibi within theoretical frameworks of space and modernity, the work transcends mere documentation. It becomes a visual critique of neoliberal urbanization’s human cost, emphasizing the erosion of communal bonds and the commodification of place. The neighborhood’s gradual metamorphosis—captured in stark, contemplative imagery—invites reflection on the broader implications of progress: What is lost when localities are subsumed into anonymous urban grids? How do communities negotiate belonging in spaces marked by perpetual transition?
Ultimately, the Çamdibi Project functions as an anthropological archive, preserving the neighborhood’s ephemeral identity while interrogating the forces that threaten it. Its neutral yet evocative visual language avoids romanticization or overt pessimism, instead fostering a dialogue between past and present, individuality and collectivity, memory and erasure. In doing so, it offers a nuanced meditation on the fragility of place in an age of accelerated change.
