MUM's ALBUM​

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Book, published in 2023​

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The book looks back to a time when photography was not a studied craft, but a gesture of presence and affection. The photographs were made by mothers, uncles, neighbors, and friends, people who had never read a theory of composition, never sat inside a darkroom class, never planned to make art. Yet their images hold a quiet certainty. The frames are balanced, the light is thoughtful, and the faces carry an honesty that is difficult to find today. These pictures come from Kurdistan between 1960 and 1990, a period when life was simple in its materials but heavy in its history. Education was limited, the world outside was distant, and visual reference was scarce, yet the photographs possess a natural clarity. Perhaps it came from living slowly, from seeing less but seeing deeply. A life with fewer distractions and fewer comparisons.

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Today we create photographs in a world saturated with images. We see thousands every day, scrolling without rest. We study technique, we buy better cameras, we chase perfect conditions, and still we often feel unsatisfied. The mind is crowded, imagination is interrupted, and the eye does not trust itself anymore. Mum's Album asks why the untrained eye once made photographs with such grace, while the trained eye now often hesitates. It suggests that photography is not only a technical act but a condition of being. A way of looking that depends on how quietly the mind can settle. This book does not simply archive family memory. It studies how images are born when life itself moves slower, when the photographer is not trying to perform or impress, only to remember. In these photographs we find a lesson, a reminder that vision grows not from knowledge alone, but from a clear, uncluttered way of living and seeing.