This artist brings Turkish streets to life with his cartoons
Hakan Keles, 31, draws enormous characters on the photos he takes of Turkey’s streets. For him, the illustrations make the places “readable.”
Artist Hakan Keles, 31, is no stranger to design.
His project, Lilliputs, gives audiences a glimpse into the vicissitudes of Turkish life – with an emphasis on the nation’s ordinary people and their animals.
“At first the characters were more abstract and genderless. But in time, they transformed into representations of their areas,” Keles told TRTWORLD
Here’s some of his work:
Keles is an architectural research assistant who lives in the northwestern Turkish city of Eskisehir. He says he developed a habit of capturing photos of old, unfashionable places that few frequent.
He started out by drawing on photographs he’d taken while out walking. He realised the large-scale characters he drew made the places more “readable.” And the project came alive over time.
“I don’t have a particular message to convey with them, but each observer seem to interpret them in their way,” Keles said.
So far, he has focused on the rural areas of Eskisehir and Edremit, but says he is planning to expand his project to other cities.
Author: Asena Bosnak
