Hülya 3

her face tells many stories here..

The light here is better than in the others. Very moody. A portrait of her inner soul. She must be happy with it!

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Excellent portrait of the celebrity. Probably the best ever. Great lighting and framing. Congrats, Best Regards Mert TURKOGLU

thank you Mert...:)

Something very special and haunting here. I keep coming back to this shot. Fine portrait of a talented, interesting woman.

For most of the visitors of this site, this may be a B&W portrait of a beautiful woman captured with a earthly natural composition?. But, those of us who know about how she started her fame and how she evolved and re-invented herself over and over again through the years can really appreciate how well this photo captures what may be going on behind those beautiful green eyes. I am not a photo critique, or an internet junkie, but I feel obliged to give a bit of a background to set a ?non-visual? context to this photograph.

 

Hulya Avsar is a beauty queen turned actress turned singer turned magazine publisher turned TV host turned business woman (may not be in the same order, but you got the point) of our times in modern Turkey. She is a smart woman, mother to a beautiful daughter, ex-wife to a cheating husband, and a headstrong woman to stand tall on her own in a male dominant society, under the constant pressure from the paparazzi (and we all know that they are the bottom dwellers of the camera wielding society). What she has done to herself and to her life is nothing to be underestimated.

 

So you may be wondering why I wrote all this?!? ? When I look at this photograph, as soon as I connect with her eyes, it makes me remember her roller-coaster life in a split-second. Kind of like what they say when you are about to die your entire life goes by before your eyes. This photo makes me think of ?her? life and wonder about what she might be thinking at the moment of this shot. Her mother? A past mistake from her youth? The day her daughter was born? A secret lover when she was a teenager? What to cook tonight? Her wedding night?... In the end, I am surprised that I know so much about her and it?s been over 10 years since I moved out of Turkey!?

 

Now I suggest you go back to the photo and see if it makes you feel the same? Surprisingly enough, though, those who commented on this photo sensed the depth of her mood and her thoughts by just looking at it without knowing anything about her life. I say that?s the power of photography in general and this shot in specific! My deepest respect to Ceylan whose work I will now follow closely and try to learn from.

 

PS: She is much prettier in person, by the way. I still remember the day I ran into her at the entrance of a hotel when I was in Turkey for business. It?s one of those memories you remember in slow motion.

 

PPS: No. I am not a high-school student with a crush on a celebrity! It?s been 20 years since I graduated from one though!

 

PPPS: I am an amateur photographer with a Nikon D200 and a couple of high-end lenses. To date, I have worked with one single subject only? my one and only love... my daughter of 15 months. I want to submit her photos to this site, but I am a bit intimidated by the quality of the members? portfolios here. May be in a couple of months or so?