Selin Yurdakul
Photographer exploring how people engage with urban environments, with a focus on belonging.
Key Themes: Belonging in urban environments · Dialogue in public spaces · Participatory and dialogic practices in the city · Games · Storytelling · Walking
At the heart of my work is an exploration of belonging — how people create, sense, and sustain it within the textures of urban life. I am drawn to the subtle gestures, shared rhythms, and small acts through which people claim space and connect to one another in cities. Rooted in sociology and communication sciences, my practice looks at the city as a living conversation — a place where meaning is constantly co-created through encounters, memory, and everyday movement.
I approach this inquiry through dialogue and walking. Dialogue allows me to see how different voices and perspectives shape a shared sense of place; walking becomes a way of listening — of being in quiet conversation with the city itself. Through photography, collaborative projects, and walking-based practices, I attempt to explore the diversity of interactions that make belonging visible.
I usually work on themes and focus on their connection to the city, documenting their spatial manifestations over time. My work is dialogic in nature and collaborative whenever it’s possible.
Selected Work
• Wish: Aya Yorgi (2008, Istanbul-Ongoing)
An ongoing project documenting a wish-making ritual on Buyukada. The project documents the syncretic ritual practices, while observing the production of a temporary site of belonging in ritual space, through collective participation.
• Messages from Galata Bridge (2025, Istanbul-Ongoing)
This is a long-term photographic project documenting the writings on the railings of Galata Bridge, where people address the city directly in a warm, playful, and intimate tone. The project examines the bridge as a fragile, conditional, and unscalable site of urban belonging.
• Toy City: Photographs from Salı Pazarı Flea Market (2025, Istanbul-Ongoing)
This photography project reflects on urban identity, through the lens of well-loved toys.
In progress recent work:
• Traces of Rest (2026, Istanbul)
• Reasons to Walk (2025, Istanbul)
Past work:
A collaborative, play-like exploration of cities through photography, storytelling, and painting. A participatory storytelling project, producing narratives that reflect the multilayered, ever-changing nature of urban spaces, in collaboration with a local resident from each city. Awarded Special Mention at Experimento BIO 2013, Bilbao, Spain.
• Make Yourself at Home (2009, Istanbul)
Exploring the “in-between” spaces of hotel rooms, this project invited participants to bring personal objects and transform a “temporary room” into a “home”. Through photography and participatory, object-based storytelling, it investigates memory, identity, and how people inhabit transient spaces.
Editorial & Translation Work
• Founder & Editor, Pocketful Illustration Magazine, print-on-demand Magazine (2008–2015)
• Book translations: The House on Mango Street (Sandra Cisneros), Sense and Sensibility (Jane Austen), The Reckoning & The Burning (Jane Casey), Chime (Franny Billingsley), Chasing Amanda (Melissa Foster)
Residencies & Awards
• OT301 Amsterdam, Artist Residency Program, Dec 2013–Feb 2014
• Stichting Kaus Australis Rotterdam, Artist Residency Program, Oct 2012–Jan 2013
• Special Mention, Experimento BIO 2013, MEM & Phake, Bilbao, Spain (Project I Am Here)
Selected Exhibitions
• Jan 2013: Stichting Kaus Australis, Rotterdam, Project I am Here – Rotterdam - by Selin Yurdakul and Şahin Özbay
• Nov 2012: Stichting Kaus Australis, Rotterdam, Kaus Australis Open Studios
• May 2012: Kulturni Center Grad, Belgrade, Project I am Here - Belgrade - by Selin Yurdakul and Şahin Özbay
• Mar 2012: Kriterion, Sarajevo, Project I am Here - Sarajevo - by Selin Yurdakul and Şahin Özbay
• May 2004: Club Academia, Istanbul, Cistern Group Exhibition - “There is no document of culture which is not at the same time a document of barbarism” (Benjamin)
• Additional group exhibitions: 10+
Research Interests
Belonging in urban environments· Dialogic practices · Ritual practices · Games · Play theory · Participatory storytelling practices