| Art Profile |
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Ahmet Polat was born in Roosendaal, Holland in 1978. He studied photography at St. Joost Academy in Breda. After a few years of traveling, Polat moved to Turkey to explore his heritage through photography. In 2006, Polat was awarded “Young Photographer” award by the International Center of Photography. In 2007, he had his first early retrospective at the Istanbul Modern. Polat’s 3rd book publication “…Neither Here Nor There…” was released in 2008. His book “Gurbetci” was the result of fieldwork documenting Turkish immigrants from Holland, Germany, and France in their villages.
Polat has served on commissions for cultural institutes and commercial companies, like the Istanbul Modern and MAVI jeans. Since 1999, his works have been exhibited at many museums and galleries including Fotomuseum (The Hague), RAM (Rotterdam), FFFI (Frankfurt), and Gallery X-ist (Istanbul) in many countries such as France, Vienna, Germany, Malaysia, Holland and Belgium. His photographs have been published in French and Turkish Vogue, Paris Match, Marie Claire, Quest and Vice magazine. In 2010, he had a solo exhibition "Kemal′s Dream" at the FOAM museum in Amsterdam.
Since 2005, Polat has lectured at the Bilgi University in Istanbul, AKI Enschede and the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague. He has worked on setting up several international exchange programs between universities. In addition, he works with Foundation BKVB (Amsterdam) as a commission member. Currently, Polat continues to work both in Turkey and Holland.
Reference: ahmetpolat.nl, en.wikipedia.org, punctum.asia, ahmetpolat.wordpress.com, kouha.kocaeli.edu.tr
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