Elegant Mockery

Dirimart Pera in Istanbul presents Elegant Mockery (Zarifane Alay), a solo exhibition of photographs by Ozan Sağdıç, from 12 November to 13 December 2026. Curated by the artist's son, Ruhi Oğuz Sağdıç, it opens on 12 November at 6pm. This is the photographer's first solo show with Dirimart, which now represents him. The pictures look at ordinary life: crowds, streets, places of work and leisure, each caught as people, objects and movement fall into one frame.

Sağdıç was born in Balıkesir in 1934. In 1956 he joined Hayat magazine as one of its first two photojournalists. Four years later he moved to Ankara to open the magazine's bureau, and the capital has stayed his home. Beside reportage, he shot plays staged by the Turkish State Theatres and designed posters, book covers and other printed matter. He also taught photography at Ankara University and Hacettepe University in the early years of their new faculties.

The images in Elegant Mockery hinge on the meeting of chance and arrangement. Some groupings were set up, others simply happened, yet each holds only until a step or a glance alters it. A sculpture that seems to join a row of people on a bench, or a handcart rolling past an aeroplane, gives a familiar place an odd twist. The artist calls the quiet irony of these near encounters zarifane alay, or elegant mockery. In his view a photograph ought to please, raise a smile and set the viewer thinking.

Dress, workplaces, vehicles and shared urban spaces link the scenes to a society in flux, so every frame also records its period. Sağdıç received the title of State Artist in 1998. His honours include the Aydın Doğan Award for photography in 2014 and the ÇAĞSAV Honorary Award in 2023. In 2024 Istanbul Modern devoted a survey of 127 photographs to his work under the title The Photographer's Testimony.