We were lucky to catch up with Fadil Inceoglu recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Fadil thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?
Q: How did you learn to do what you do? A: I have been passionate about visual arts since my late teens, following a pivotal event in my life that took place in Turkey. This experience led me to explore myself and what I wanted from life more deeply, beginning my artistic journey with painting. My early inspirations spanned from the Golden Age to the Modern Era, including movements such as Impressionism, Surrealism, Modernism, and Expressionism. Influences like Gustav Klimt, Amedeo Modigliani, Frida Kahlo, Monet, Hiroshige, and Rembrandt shaped my perception of emotions—both my own and those of the people around me—and how they express them.
Later, I discovered great photographers, including Vivian Maier, Imogen Cunningham, Helen Levitt, Fan Ho, and Saul Leiter, who inspired me to use photography as a medium to convey my perspective of the world. To achieve this, I studied light, shadow, contrast, and color theory and listened to lectures, freely available online, on topics ranging from the principles of cameras to techniques in color and black-and-white photography. My background in physics and a Ph.D. helped me focus on the techniques and mechanics behind light, color, and sensor functionality. I also studied many, many photographs taken by my personal idols.
Q: Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process?
A: To speed up the learning process, I wish I could spare more time in listening to lectures on great photography and to study the photographs I admire. However, having a full time job as a scientist is making this more difficult. But I am a fast learner and I always put in the hours whenever I can.
Q: What skills do you think were most essential?
A: The most essential skills are awareness of my surroundings and creating a composition on the go, as my genre of photography often requires to be stealthy and be on foot. Also, understanding the lenses and camera settings are important.
Q: What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
A: Lack of enough time to study and practice. I always carry my camera with me whenever I go out, putting in the hours to practice. In a way, I’m trying to catch up on the years and opportunities I missed.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I am a 40-year-old Turkish-born artist and scientist currently living in Miami Beach, Florida, with my husband and our two dogs, Charlie and Nora. My journey began with a move to Denmark at the age of 27 to pursue a Ph.D. in physics, which marked the start of a diverse academic career spanning Denmark, Germany, and the USA. It was in Denmark where I met his husband, Jesper, to whom I have been married for almost five years.
My passion for visual arts has always been a central part of my identity. As a young man, I expressed my creativity through painting before transitioning to photography after my 39th birthday, which has become my primary artistic outlet.
My photography is a reflection of objectivism, where the focus is on capturing reality as it is—unfiltered, raw, and precise. I strive to create images that embody clarity of vision. Through black and white photography, I explore genres such as minimalism, abstraction, architecture, and street photography, drawing inspiration from the works of photographers like Vivian Maier, Imogen Cunningham, Fan Ho, Helen Levitt, Saul Leiter, and Henri Cartier-Bresson. To achieve my objectives, I use techniques like intentional camera movement and long exposure to capture the essence of fleeting moments as well as capturing the moment as is.
For me, photography is an artistic as well as an intellectual craft, one that requires mastery over technique, awareness of the environment, sense of emotion, and a deep understanding of the subject. In my work, I seek to strip away distractions and capture the pure form and structure of a scene. By focusing on light, shadow, and geometry, I reveal the underlying order and harmony in the world around us.
My personal life has been marked by both triumph and adversity. As an openly gay man, I have faced discrimination, including a violent attack in Turkey where I was stabbed for my sexuality. Despite these challenges, I have remained resilient, channeling my experiences into my art, reflecting my philosophy of exploration of truth and clarity.
Today, my work reflects a deep intellectual curiosity and a commitment to observing and revealing the beauty in everyday life. Recently, my photograph titled “Monolith” was selected for “the Y/OUR DENVER 2024 Photo Competition: Denver Through Time online exhibition” with the Denver Architecture Foundation and the Colorado Photographic Arts Center.
Another work of mine titled “Lovers” was published by the Denver-based Arts and Literary Magazine From Whispers to Roars.
Recently, I was officially accepted to participate in Miami Art Week 2024 as a Digital Platform Exhibitor for the PhotoMIAMI Show with 10 of my photographs.
People who are interested in my photography can follow me on Instagram, where I post black and white photographs daily. I also sell limited-edition versions of my photographs as prints.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
For me, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is creating. I love it when viewers, photography enthusiasts, and professional photographers show interest in my work. However, the most rewarding aspect is going out, observing people, carefully looking at the environment to see the potential composition, and creating art right there and then, when you see and feel it is the moment and scene you want to freeze in time.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
I would like to answer this question from a photography perspective. The best way to support artists is to engage with them and purchase their artwork if possible. I would also encourage people to explore different aspects and genres of photography and go beyond what they see on social media and what large accounts publish. Unfortunately, I often notice that people tend to “like” photographs more that are continuously posted by big accounts in a particular style, such as chiaroscuro, saturating the space. I even see some good photographers I follow (both amateur and professional) falling into this pattern, abandoning their individual styles for mainstream trends. Another important issue is the ability to distinguish AI-generated images from real photographs, but that is a whole other discussion.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fdl_inc_photo/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fadil-inceoglu/
Image Credits
Fadil Inceoglu