GIORGIO CAIONE     Fotografia, Progetti culturali, Viaggi

Erikli is a Turkish holiday village on the shores of the Aegean Sea, about fifty kilometers from the Greek border.

Like many holiday destinations in Turkey, thanks to the economic growth of recent years, Erikli has increased significantly in terms of housing and attendance.

 

From the quiet village of the bourgeoisie of the area it has become a destination for the new middle class families from Istanbul.

 The common denominator of the new comers essentially seems to be bad taste. A kitsch that seems far from the artistic references of Gillo Dorfles (Kitsch. The World of Bad Taste, 1969), quite a popular taste characterized by disregard, carelessness, are often close to the solutions adopted in the "gece kondu" (the infamous Turkish slums).
Every house, every detail, every do-it-yourself fixing seems to assert the dominance of “ugly”. Costumes for sale at the market, fake Greek statues, the neglected waterfront, abandoned (?) armchairs on the street, the ubiquitous junk. It is not the type of ugliness that arouses disgust and sensation, it is a kind of thin ugly. No less evident.
 

However, to paraphrase "The history of ugliness" by Umberto Eco, we can say that nothing prevents the bad of today to be the beauty of tomorrow, and so there is an irresistible attraction that drives us in that direction.

 

In the choice of the subjects I have privileged a low-profile approach, without shouting shoots or an unnecessary effect. In the composition I tried always to balance the entropy of Erikli, or to reflect its unintelligible balance.
 

Photo project selected for "Prima Luce" contest. Exhibition held at Palazzo Ducale - Genoa (Italy) in October 2014.