Resist Laughter

2015 - 2017

“It’s very sad that a person fears her safety, just because she supports basic human rights. In this atmosphere, fighting for women’s rights is a luxury for many people,” Gizem, 2016.

A tweet took me to Turkey initially - an image of young women laughing in the street and the Turkish words #direnkahkaha (resist laughter). The post was one of thousands shared by Turkish women to protest comments by the country’s then-Deputy Prime Minister who said women should not laugh in public. The post found me, 16,000 kms away. It made me want to learn more about these women; digital natives taking to virtual streets connecting with an international women’s movement.

I first visited in Turkey 2015, the same year I began tentatively calling myself a feminist. Many I interviewed and photographed identified with the word. Some rejected the label and the movement as Western, preferring that their actions alone define them. As a group, they were unified in their outrage about skyrocketing numbers of murdered women - 1400% increase between 2003 and 2010. On every other issue, they were divided: motherhood, politics, sexuality, tradition, and religion.

Returning in 2016, I found a movement being rapidly reshaped by the intensity of current events in Turkey - multiple terrorist attacks, an increasingly conservative and fascist (yet popular) Government, a failed military coup followed by state of emergency. Amidst widespread arrests of those who oppose and criticise the Government, I was met not with defiance, but with a creeping sense of defeat amongst those I spent time with. Self-preservation for a cause had become, naturally, more of a priority than self-sacrifice.

A selection of works was exhibited at Special Group, Sydney part of Head On International Photography Festival in 2017, Lost Ones Gallery in Ballarat, and projected at Museum of Modern Art Zagreb as part of Organ Vida Festival of Photography. A digital publication was made to accompany the exhibition and allow visitors to the space to read the stories of the people featured in the photographs. Access it via www.resistlaughter.com (mobile only).

“The real danger is our opinions. It is not certain that they will not arrest me when I will go out from this room.”

Beyoğlu by night from Galata Tower, 2016.

“If I am not living my freedom, I won’t hide. I will die in this way. If I die in this way I can have proud. I will die on these ideas, it’s an honour for me.”

“There are problems with word feminism in turkey. But I am not against feminism, on the contrary I advocate it. Feminism is not a bad thing, the system caused feminism to appear, and the system creates feminism as a consequence of itself.” Finali

Munzur Irmağı by moonlight, Tunceli, 2016

“I have faced every kind of gender discrimination, first as a little girl and later as a woman. I cannot wear what I want, because in court cases, rapists can get his sentence reduced by saying the victim was wearing miniskirt.”

“If we look at Turkey through class, the class that uses the word feminism is very intellectual, middle class, or upper class, it's like a pistol in their hands.” Finalist, National Photographic Portrait Prize 2017.

“Even though you’re feminist or call yourself as feminist, you accept some values which are patriarchal. But you don’t even notice it, because it is part of your culture it is in your blood, I don’t know, it is under your skin."

"Inequality between men and women, gender hierarchy and polarisation actually advance the power of the government.”

Installation shots: Special Group Studios, part of Head On International Festival of Photography, Sydney