DAMLA ŞAHİNBAŞ live and work in İstanbul. 

After studying graphics and photography at high school, they started studying Photography and Video at Yıldız Technical University, İstanbul.

Growing up in a family where the social roles of ‘woman’ and ‘man’ are partially destroyed, has facilitated them to open up a space for themselves and produce. However, their main motivation to produce artworks is the socio-political perspective and experiences that they started to gain in their high school days and still continue to gain.

Their early confrontation with their sexual identity and orientation, and theirr admiration for the existence of people in their safe zone gave them the motivation to realize ‘Couch Grass’. Their interest in the darkroom pushed them to produce their latest work ‘WE ARE REA’ in which they also establish a bond with their own body and their obsessions.

Education
Maltepe Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School / Graphics and Photography

Yildiz Technical University, Faculty of Art and Design, Photography and Video Program

Exhibitions
2019 ‘Couch Grass’, IFSAK, Istanbul (Solo)
2019 ‘Surprize’, Centro Arti Visive Pescheria, Pesaro, Italy
2020 ‘Bald But Hairy’, Arada Festival, Istanbul
2021 ‘Safer Space’, The International Queer-Minorities Film Festival, Vienna
2021 ‘I See You’, part of ‘Landings’, Falmouth University
2021 ‘Courage to Care’, The Bar, Istanbul
2022 ‘Çark’, Koli Art Space, Istanbul
2023 ‘CI Photo Focus’, Contemporary Istanbul 18th Edition, Istanbul
2023 ‘212 Photography Istanbul’, Istanbul
2023 ‘Base 2023’, Istanbul

Publications
2021 Photozine, FailBooks-Faz Collective, Istanbul

Contests
Finalist of the 212 Photography competition 2022 - LINK
Winner of the Der Greif, Guest Room with Varun Gupta, September 2023 - LINK

Honorable Mentions/Photo of the Month–September 2023: Portrait/The Image Flow - LINK