Arda Ozum

Without a doubt, my eyes are the most important tool I use in my photography. It took a long time to learn how to “see” the way a camera views the world, and it takes practice to stay sharp.

-Arda

Arda Ozum stumbled into photography unintentionally. His love for photography was sparked by a summer motorcycle trip to California during undergraduate studies in Civil Engineering. Almost as an afterthought, he packed his father’s old camera into one of the bags on his motorcycle. What started as a few rolls of holiday snapshots quickly developed into became a life-long passion. Five years after his start in photography, he purchased some darkroom equipment and started printing his photographs by hand. He was hooked from the first time he saw the print appear in the developer. Arda has been actively shooting, developing and printing black and white images using the traditional silver-gelatin process. He plans to experiment with other traditional processes such as gum bichromate, bromoil and photogravure. His photographic subject matter usually includes people, street life, and some landscapes.