In Brief

Born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia by Turkish parents but lived most of my adult life in the French cosmopolitan city of Montréal, Quebec. Growing up in an immigrant household and experiencing both western and eastern Canada which are culturally quite different, has impacted my life in a truly Canadian sense.

When I was young I used to collect and read Popular Photography magazines dreaming of owning a Canon EOS Rebel (I remember the Andre Agassi ads quite well!) and would often think about what sort of photos I would take. Photography, I guess you could say, was always in the cards but it’s time wouldn’t come until much later in my life.

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My focus shifted a few short years later into music. DJ’ing at parties and raves in Vancouver in my early twenties would eventually lead me to graduating with a degree in Digital Music and Audio Engineering. Then making the move out east after graduation I stumbled into another domain completely unrelated but also filled with artistic talent. 3 years later I would graduate with another degree in Fashion Marketing which ultimately lead me to opening a successful fashion and lifestyle sales, marketing, import and distribution company which I founded in 2011, Stylepool Distribution. Stylepool was the exclusive distributor for several emerging and established fashion brands in the North American market and counted the likes of Urban Outfitters, Forever21, HBC, Ron Herman, LA Rag and many more well known businesses as our longstanding clients. 

 

In late 2015 I fulfilled a lifelong dream of coming to Japan. This is where my photography interest came back full circle and I’ve been spending many months a year since documenting this fascinating land of contrasts and wonderful people in what is widely regarded as a mecca for street photography doing my best in developing a style and voice that is uniquely mine. In 2020 I started to merge my street photography techniques with portraits pursing a passion to create unique and stylized environmental portraiture works.

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In 2021 amidst border closures I did what looking back on now was the impossible and sold my business and moved to Tokyo while completing my MBA in Digital Business Transformation. Recently I launched a new company here in Tokyo called Tekumi Co Inc, focusing on content creation for brands and companies both international and locally as well as working freelance and hosting a weekly Meetup for Tokyo based creatives.

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