Burak Bulut Yildirim V. 2

Burak Bulut Yildirim is a figurative photographer who has exhibited in Turkey, Germany, Spain, Italy, Greece, and Switzerland. Recent solo exhibitions include galleries such as Akt Gallery in Berlin, dual shows at Volksbank Gallery in Heilbronn, Germany, Gallery 77 at Contemporary Istanbul Art Fair, and Pinelo Gallery in Istanbul. Collective exhibitions include Fogae Gallery in Zurich, XVal Gallery in Barcelona, Space - Millepiani  in Rome, Artcore Gallery in Thessaloniki, Greece, and International Fashion Film Festival in Istanbul. He is a member of IGBK, German Portrait Photography Society (BPP), and has served as a Sony Europe Imaging Ambassador.

Sometimes misunderstood, Burak deconstructs conventional eroticism and represents nudity to represent form, structure, ritual, and as a sense of an organic landscape. His work remains often risqué with depictions of nude women frolicing in an open public street or sexualizing violence by interactions with pistols. The subject of nudity still remains quite shocking in art as revealed through the recent unveiling and reaction of a 45 foot statue of a nude woman in San Francisco. Should nudity be so taboo? What about nudity in ancient Greek sculpture? Burak’s goal as an artist remains to integrate the nude form with compositions and settings in order to reflect a sense of naturality, rather than as a subject of exposure.

With a sense of dramatic theatre, Burak’s finest photographs tend to be his depictions of nudes in urban settings such as interiors and architecture. His figures stand confident on the open street, on a public balcony, or through a revealed window, unashamed and unafraid of their natural form. Whether interacting with keyboards and computers, clotheslines, or fabric, each model conveys unique characteristics conveyed through their complex body language. The emotional reactions of the figures communicate boredom, excitement, sensuality, confidence, and jubilee but never over-exposure. The comfort of these ‘figurative landscapes’ reveals the beauty of the female form with various subject matter which accentuates her purpose and guidance. The work may be erotic, but there seems to be a sense to accentuate the aesthetics of sensuality, rather than turn the subject into revealing grotesque impulses or vulgarity. 

Bella Donna VI (pictured above) remains one of Burak’s finest photographs. The angle for which the model stands, along with the angular composition, flows seamlessly with the clothes-linings and the open street. Her eyes are squinted in a sense of serenity and her arms are braced in a dramatic expression of solace. A fine photograph which exemplifies how the bodily form can be used to convey notions of oneness with the model’s surroundings.

Burak Bulut Yildirim creates sensual photography which exemplifies turning the risqué into the avant-garde through clever depictions of models integrating their natural form with various conceptual environments. His photography builds a sense of character by revealing the authentic nature of his models through dramatic posture and integrated surroundings. Through various techniques and revolving settings, these dramatic photographs take a life of their own as they express sensuality beyond traditional connotations. Burak’s works contemplate and manifest the purpose of organic structure beyond limitations of straight depictions by bringing out the distinct character of his models through suggestive interactions with their environments and themselves. A profoundly nuanced artist, Burak guides the viewer through his lens of altering the nude form beyond literal connotations and into metaphor, narrative, and revealing confidence, expression, and liberation.

https://burakbulut.org