Ceren Karaçayır

Ceren Karaçayır was born in Istanbul in 1983. Her passion for photography was lit by an eighth birthday gift of a camera from her father. After finishing at Hüseyin Avni Sözen Anadolu High School, Karaçayır studied photography and graduated from the Photography Department in the Faculty of Fine Arts at Marmara University in 2006. In 2005-2006, some of her works were exhibited at Pera Museum in the group exhibition “EL/LE’’ and at Haliç University in the group exhibition “We Tried”.

Karaçayır had her first solo exhibition “Otherselfs” in 2007 and displayed the normality and humanity of the lives of Downs Syndrome children and adults at the Barış Manço Cultural Center and Caddebostan Cultural Center with the sponsorship of Kadıköy Şifa Health Institution. In the same year, she exhibited architectural elements in the exhibition “Street Puzzles” in the Second Young Photographers Festival at Yapı Industrial Center. She submitted a photograph “Stage” in the exhibition “Confusion 7” in Kargart in 2007. She entered a series of action dance photographs “GO” in the Third Kargart Performance Days / “Body-Joint” Exhibition. Karaçayır published a photograph book “Oyun Değil Gerçek” (Not A Game But A Reality), which shows patients in the Department of Pediatric Hematology - Oncology at Cerrahpaşa Medical School.

Karaçayır won first prize in the 2007 National Geographic International Photography Contest. Her picture was entered internationally and took the second prize among the world contestants in “People Category” of 2007. Other honors include first prize in the 2006 HSBC Bank contest called “Different points of View Enrich Our World” and first prize in the 2007 contest of Turkish-American Association named “Reflections from Turkish American Friendship”. Currently, Karaçayır continues her master’s degree at her alma mater.

Reference: cerenkaracayir.com, tr.wikipedia.org, google.com.tr/images