ERDEM VAROL (1988) lives and works in İstanbul.

His practice is a layered visual way of thinking that is shaped around the acts of walking, seeing, recording and looking again. Rather than an ordinary recording practice, he sees photography as a playground that opens space for the intellectual productivity of mistakes and accidents. Therefore, his approach to the city is not a documentary attitude in the classical sense; it is rather a testimony woven with acts of memory, attention and disappearance. He has a special interest in printed matters and produced several books and photo zines.

His publications include a self published book ‘Free Fall’ (2017), a fanzine ‘Sanayi Mahallesi’ (2018) and a monograph 'Dolana Dolaşa' (2021), and collective publications ‘F: Photocopy Publication Project’ (2020), ‘Aralık IV’ (2019) and ‘Almost Red’ (2017).

His works have been exhibited at 'Tightly Knotted to a Similar String', Quick Art Space, İstanbul (2025); 'Good morning, I’m off to bed!', Ka, Ankara (2025); 'Urban Defiance', BursaFotoFest (2024); 'Fractured Modernities: Contemporary Art from Turkey', Academy Art Museum, Maryland (2023); 'Istanbuls Today', Pera Museum, Istanbul (2022); 'Bound Narratives: A Photobook Library', Middle East Now Festival, Firenze (2022); 'Forms of Silence', Kıraathane, İstanbul (2021); Istanbul Photobook Festival, Istanbul (2019); International Più Libri Più Liberi Photobook Festival, Rome (2018); PhaseBook: Prague Artbook & Zine Fair, Prague (2018) and Volumes Independent Art Publishing Fair, Zurich (2018) among many others.

He is the winner of Bird in Flight Prize Special Nomination (2020).

He is one of the co-founders of Suimasen Editions and an affiliate of PLATFORM by GAPO.

erdemvarol.com