Turkish documentary photographer Kayra Atasoy, discusses her Berlin inspired project ‘Blame the Youth’ which brings together rave culture, techno music and rebellion that is contained within Turkish youth culture. Kayra uses photography as an outlet to express and explore her own identity as well as something that stands for all young people. She explains how her audience are shocked that her pictures were taken in Turkey due to the country’s lack of rave culture. However, it is clear that Kayra has found an underground collective of people who desire more and her images beautifully reflect this movement.

What motivated you to create the ongoing photographic project ‘Blame the Youth’?

The most important factor that motivated me was my travels around Europe. I started to travel alone almost 4 years ago. During these trips, Berlin was the city that fascinated me with it’s subcultures and rave culture, hence these things influenced my work the most. In my country, I’ve never felt the sense of freedom that young people seek. Berlin made me feel something I wasn’t allowed to and that sensation kept me alive. My perspective of life has changed a lot since then and continued to change and enhance as I travelled. Every time I returned to Turkey I was comparing what society made me believe in to what I do believe in now. I craved to chase my belief, my freedom and the youth’s freedom in Turkey. I wanted to show how the independent youth exists in this culture, so I began the ‘Blame the Youth’ project.

How would you best describe the feeling that your photographs portray?

Perhaps, what I wanted to demonstrate with this project was illustrating the unseen. Whilst seeking the culture which was within my country but hidden, I realised I found more than I intended to. Accordingly, my answer is the sense of freedom.

Your images capture snapshots of adolescence and rave culture in its purest form - can you tell us a bit more about these sub-cultures where you are from in Turkey?

I live in a small city. We don’t have a lot of options to dance to techno music. Unfortunately, a lot of places close around two or three in the morning. Yet, there are a mass of people aiming to live their freedom. These incredible people love techno music, dancing and creating… even though it was hard to reflect the culture that exists within my city I tried my best to photograph glimpses of moments regarding rave culture. Many of my followers don’t believe me when I say I did take these shots in Turkey. They can’t believe the idea that people, indeed, can dress like this and have fun like this. Fortunately, people are beginning to understand and accept this idea.

You have a flair for momentarily capturing an atmosphere of freedom through people’s facial expressions and movements - what techniques do you use to photograph in this way?

During photographing, rather than creating the composition, I try to be in the composition to catch specific moments. One of my main goals is to capture the moments as if I’m the camera man in a documentary. I don’t want to ruin the purity of the moment where humans lose themselves to music. The weird thing is that I sometimes don’t even realise that I took the perfect photograph or the perfect facial expression of a person because of the magical air I’m surrounded by. Generally, I aim to live in those moments as well as others. This allows me to take the picture at the right time without anyone knowing. This is one of the reasons that my photographs come out natural and spontaneous. I strive to be swift and try not to create a tension between people. I dance while photographing and become a part of the culture.

There is a definite feeling of rebellion that runs throughout your images, would you say there are controversial and political themes that underlie within your work?

If I think about it, my answer is yes. I wanted to show the act of rebellion the youth, in a way, are forced to feel. I think I have achieved to transfer the youth’s sentiments through my photographs. I’ve already created the political theme with the name I chose for my account. As the time passed and I desired to focus on the youth more, these themes got more powerful and their content strengthened. The wave of rebellion inherent in techno music and how it broke the limitations were factors that influenced me mostly. For that reason, I searched the international rave culture traces in our country. After taking the films out of the film development, I realised the photographs I took were not just for entertainment. They contained more meaning than that. My photographs reflect young people within rave culture and their stance together. In the photographs, you can feel the youth in our country is intertwined with the rave culture and lives with it. The young people who created their freedom stand against the society. In the late nights, when time doesn’t matter and all the boundaries are lifted, there is an opportunity for everyone to find their true selves. In these magical moments, I try to find my identity through taking photographs.

Can you list any creative people or even historical movements that have influenced your photography?

I don’t think I will ever stop being affected. Yet, when I look back, my trips to Germany influenced this project the most. The culture I saw pushed me to research its history. I read lots of articles about how techno music grew bigger in Berlin and how the wall wrecked. I went to Berlin multiple times and met different types of people everyday. The most important thing I have seen and felt was the way a sense of rebellion in the nature of the techno came together with the rebellion of youth in which both united after the fall of the wall. Overwhelmed young people came together in illegal rave parties and dealt with the dreadfulness of wars, rebellions and isolation with the help of heavy bass and nonstop parties. This musical revolution after political events has deeply affected the basis of my project.

In a way, your photographs share a sense of short term nostalgia due to the fact people are currently unable to go to raves or even meet up with their friends. As a documentary photographer how are you overcoming this and are you using this time to photograph different things?

Unfortunately, during these tough times, I also feel nostalgic while looking at my photographs. We’ve been quarantined in our houses for more than two months and I have limited spaces to shoot. Considering this situation, I tried my best to provide content for my audience and decided to make ‘stay home series’. I photographed the youth who were coping with the pandemic. I finished this series a couple weeks ago. I captured the moments of joy and conversations on the terrace. So, I stuck with the subtext of my project but just changed the setting. In the near future, I’m planning to create a new series where I’ll be shooting on the streets.