Biography

Aytunç Akad

Turkish, b. 1976

Aytunç is a photographer and filmmaker based in Istanbul.

He studied photography in the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in Istanbul and began pursuing his professional career in the photography and film industry over 25 years ago. He has covered social and cultural issues across Turkey and the region and is interested in long-term suburban stories.

Aytunç has produced documentary photo stories in difference countries in Asia, the Caucasus, the Middle East and Europe. His images have been published widely in publications ranging from Der Spiegel, The Guardian, Newsweek, The Times, GEO, le Monde and Bloomberg Businessweek.

He has also worked with international not-for-profit organisations, producing photo stories in refugee camps along the Turkish-Syrian border for UNHCR, shooting video documentaries such as "Solar Heroes" and "Burning with Coal" for Greenpeace and children's stories in Iraq for Save the Children.

Aytunç has also worked in the advertising and cinema industries as a director and cinematographer. He is currently (March 2020) working on his first feature length documentary film "I'm not an Apache" about a teenager from an Istanbul suburb trying to become a movie star.