DAMLA ŞAHİNBAŞ (1995) live and work in İstanbul.
After studying graphics and photography at high school, they started studying Photography and Video at Yıldız Technical University, İstanbul.
Growing up in a family where the social roles of ‘woman’ and ‘man’ are partially destroyed, has facilitated them to open up a space for themselves and produce. However, their main motivation to produce artworks is the socio-political perspective and experiences that they started to gain in their high school days and still continue to gain.
Their early confrontation with their sexual identity and orientation, and theirr admiration for the existence of people in their safe zone gave them the motivation to realize ‘Couch Grass’. Their interest in the darkroom pushed them to produce their latest work ‘WE ARE REA’ in which they also establish a bond with their own body and their obsessions.
Their works have been exhibited at ‘I See You’ part of ‘Landings’, Falmouth University (online exhibition, 2021); ‘Through the Window Project’ (online exhibition, 2021); ‘Safer Space’, The International Queer-Minorities Film Festival, Vienna (2021); ‘Bald But Hairy’, Arada Festival, İstanbul (2020); ‘Surprize’, Centro Arti Visive Pescheria, Pesaro, Italy (2019) and 'Couch Grass', IFSAK, İstanbul (2019).
In 2021, they were invited to the photozine series, curated by Faz Collective and published by Fail Books, marking their first limited publication in such format.
They are an affiliate of PLATFORM by GAPO.
