by Yvette Depaepe 
Published the 13th of December 2021

Emel Sefer loves to travel and to travel, to discover cultures and to take environmental portraits. Her work is strong and story telling. She also masters creatively edited photos but to her they also are portraits born in her thoughts instead of in a visible context.  Let's discover more about Emel through this interview. Enjoy !

'Benin Boys'

Dear Emel, can you briefly tell us about yourself, your hobbies and other jobs?  What first attracted you to photography and what are your most important life experiences which affected your photography ?
I was born in Cyprus, an island torn apart by two major wars when I was one and twelve years old. I grew up in a low-income family, my only luxury was the books I bought by saving my pocket money. I had read almost all the classics before I finished high school. Of all the novel genres, I like biographical stories the most (perhaps that's why I turned to portrait photography). Although I am interested in history, literature and art, all my education was on science and mathematics under the guidance of my teachers, and so was my working life after university. But I never stopped reading books and watching movies. My encounter with photography came about by pure coincidence after completing half a century of my life. I signed up for a basic photography course through an advertisement that was thrown under my door. I thought photography would be an excuse as I love to travel, get to know new places and new cultures, but since then I couldn't give up on photography any more.

'Pinky Beauty'

'Little Monk's School'

'Flirtatious Look'

Can you describe your overall photographic vision?
As a person, I believe in lifelong learning. While trying to improve myself by learning new things, my general vision is to contribute to the art and culture of photography in my environment and to transfer my knowledge by taking part in its art and culture.

'Family at the Market'

'Cleaning Time'

'Sauce Making'

'Little Porter'

'Brick Factory'

You have your very own style but your work is very diversified.  I see documentary, portraits as well as creatively edited images.  Can you explain why this is?
Yes, at first glance, my works seem diverse, but to me, they are all portraits. While some of my portraits reflect only the face of the person and reflect the emotion there, some of them show the person with the place where he lives and his surroundings. They are also environmental portraits because they reflect the environment of the photographed person. I think the right amount of background details gives him/her more importance. What is qualified as documentary are environmental portraits of people from the countries I visited. When it comes to my creative works, they are also portraits to me.  The main difference is that I try to create those portraits in my thoughts instead of in a visible context.

'Through children eyes'

'Stairs'

'Mother Earth'

What is more important to you, the mood,/story behind your images or the technical perfection?
What does technique matter if a photograph speaks, tells a story, makes you feeling emotions.

What generally is your relationship to your subject matter beyond being an observer?
Do you prepare carefully the locations where you are intending to photograph?
Since the portraits I took were spontaneous, our relationship does not go beyond eye contact. But after taking a photo, I show it to the people to get their approval.  If they say 'delete it' I will delete it. The portraits I took with the knowledge of the person are also people I met by chance. I try to chat with them and get to know them a little.  After getting used to each other, I take pictures of them in their most natural state. I usually don't interfere with my models, sometimes I just want them to change their position according to the direction of the light. I have very few photos that I edit. I try to capture my models like they are rather than posing. If I have determined the location, I only plan from which point and from which angle I will shoot, there is no other intervention.

What gear do you use (camera, lenses, bag)?
I don't have much equipment. I used to use Canon 6D before, but I have been using Fuji XT2 for a long time, my lens is Fujinon 16-55 f2.8, that's all. I don't need anything else anyway. I think more would be an unnecessary burden, it's your eye that takes the picture. The camera is just a tool.

What software do you use to process your images?
I edit my photos in Adobe Photoshop. I also use Nic Collection Silver Efex from time to time, especially for black and white photographs.

Can you tell us something more about your work flow?
I shoot my photos in Raw+Jpeg. JPEG photos are just so I can see the light better, the ones I edit are raw photos. I open the photo in the raw window and just look at the light settings and white balance. I adjust the crop, contrast and sharpness settings in Photoshop. After processing the photos in colour, I convert the appropriate ones to black and white.

'Curious eyes' 

'Wait Wait We Are Coming'

'Little Nun and Her Dog'

'Curly Girl'

However, since I prefer to reflect a large diversity of cultures, most are colour images. I turn very few of them into black and white. I don't like to interfere with my photos too much, except for the creative ones.

What is your most important advice to a beginner in documentary, portrait or creatively edited photography and how do you get started?
My most important advice is to watch lots of photos. Just as you cannot be a writer without reading a lot of books.1X is the perfect platform for this, you can watch the best images on the subjects you are most interested in. In addition, if you look at the scenes through the eyes of a photographer while watching a movie, you will train your eyes by capturing great frames. Apart from these, we should feed ourselves by reading art history, because painting is the ancestor of photography. Each person perceives reality with his own knowledge, appearance is a process of the seer, not the visible, so a portrait photograph is also a self-portrait of the photographer, it reflects his personality. This is what I mean when I say we should feed ourselves.

'True Love'

'Faraway'

Who are your favourite photographers and more importantly, how has your appreciation of their work affected how you approach your own photography? 
My favourite photographers are Sebastiao Salgado and Eugene Smith. I would like to be like them, to change things in the world with my photographs, of course, this is utopia for me. Apart from these, another photographer I love to follow is Steve McCurry. I have adopted the balance and simplicity of his photographs as my principle. I've also been admiring the portraits of Sergio Pandolfini (serpan), a valuable member of 1X.

Are there any specific directions that you would like to take your photography in the future or any specific goals that you wish to achieve?
As soon as I started photography, I found myself in competitions. I have many national and international awards and EFIAP titles. But then I gave up and realized that the contests did not contribute much to my photography, and now I participate very little in contests. My next goal is to shed light on the present and the future with various photography projects. I have a project that I've been thinking about for a long time but I'm not ready yet. It's about the division of my country and peace. There were photographers who worked on this subject before me, but I did not want to see a divided Cyprus with the subject of border gates, wire fences, burnt down houses, immigration, families of martyrs, as in those photographs, but instead  I would like to see and tell how our tiny island can turn into a paradise if an atmosphere of peace is provided. Since it is not possible to realize such a project directly with photography, I need to make use of semiotics. Of course, there will be portraits in it, but the language of expression will not be direct photography, but photography that shows the invisible. To put it more clearly, they are photographs in which the viewer can attribute meaning in line with his own perception by making use of semiotics. It is a series that draws the audience in, makes them think and even creates new layers by chatting. I would be happy if I could contribute to the peace of my country even a little bit with this work. As I said in the beginning, it is a very difficult goal to reach, so I need to think and prepare very well.

Describe your favourite photograph taken by you and why it is special to you?
All my photos are special to me, it is impossible to pick out a single one.

'Elegance'

'Deep Look'

'Nafisa'

'Indian Girl'

Is there anything else you wish to add  and what do you think about 1X as a home base for your work?
First of all, it is very kind of you to give me this opportunity to talk about myself and my photographic world.  Thanks from the bottom of my heart. There are so many master photographers with amazing works which I follow on 1X doing an amazing work.  That's why your offer to interview me among them made me very proud and motivated me to produce better photos. 1X is an incredibly perfect platform, you have the chance to follow the very best in every photography category. In addition to all this, you learn to recognize and pick out excellent photos while contributing to the member curation by selecting photos to be published. I am very happy to be a member of 1x.