Subject + Object No.5 — Doruk Barın
A photographer continuing his work in Istanbul. He is curious about what an object represents rather than what it is useful for. His interest in automobiles and architecture is also fed by this curiosity.
Object:
What is the meaning of an object to you? When do you think an object stops being "a thing" and starts carrying "meaning"?
Doruk:

Objects stop being "a thing" the moment their functions become visible and what they represent becomes discovered.

Object:
Do objects belong to us, or do we end up belonging to them?
Doruk:

Some objects can transform us with the ideas they represent. After a certain point, we don't own them; we change together with them. Maybe that is why giving up on certain objects feels like giving up a part of ourselves.

…Maybe that is why giving up on certain objects feels like giving up a part of ourselves…
Object:
Do you believe that items have a memory?
Doruk:

Yes, maybe that's why my interest in automobiles and architecture doesn't stem solely from their designs. Every well-designed object not only meets a need; it also represents an idea. Its memory starts right there

Object:
Which is more important to you: an object's function, its form, or its story?
Doruk:

Form affects the eye, function affects the mind. Story is above both. In a well-designed object, there is a sense that no line is a coincidence. So what catches my interest, before how an object looks, is why it exists in that exact way.

Object:
If you wanted to describe your life with a single object, which object would that be and why?
Doruk:

I think a compass. In my view, it describes the relationship between the center and the boundary well. Let me have a center, but let me constantly expand its perimeter. Every new experience expands the circle a bit more, but the center stays the same.

Doruk Barın

SUBJECT + OBJECT — INTERVIEW SERIES