Information
Samet Durgun (b. 1988) is a Berlin-based photographer and visual artist.
As a first-generation immigrant and queer artist living in Berlin, I've grappled with the question of belonging. I found connection with gender-nonconforming, queer, transgender refugees and asylum seekers in the city, whose intricate identities inspire deep respect in me.
My work challenges the traditional view of photography as merely seeing, proposing that it can be more about listening. I seek to capture people in their wholeness, embracing their differences while recognizing the limitations of representation. My images reflect my personal relationships and impressions of their stories, making them a subjective representation of my own experiences.
I am German-Turkish-Abkhazian, was born in 1988 in Adana, and live in Berlin. My works are shown in venues including the Museum für Fotografie, Berlin and Kunstmuseum Brandts in Denmark.
A plainer account of what the work is and who it involved is here; on the photographers working near the same questions, here.
Book
- 2021Come Get Your Honey (Kehrer Verlag)
Selected exhibitions
- 2026Gaze and Skin — LANGER Space for Photography, Mannheim
- 2025Come Get Your Honey — Fotografiska Berlin — Emerging Berlin, Berlin
- 2024–25Love, Lust and Freedom — Kunstmuseum Brandts, Odense
- 2021Seen By #15: Nothing Ever Happened (Yet) — Museum für Fotografie, Berlin
Awards
- 2021LensCulture Critics' Choice Award
- 2021GUP Fresh Eyes talent selection
Talks
- 2026IFA Berlin — speaker — 4–8 September 2026
- 2021Photobook Fair talk, Impressions Gallery — in conversation with Alexa Becker, Kehrer Verlag
- —Reverse Portfolio Walk, Deutsche Fotografische Akademie — with Karina-Sirkku Kurz
Other work
- 2024Off to Elsewhere — Poster campaign, Münchner Kammerspiele × Der Greif, Munich, curated by Çağla Ilk
Education
- BA, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul
- Common Ground mentorship, Universität der Künste Berlin, 2020/21 — inaugural edition, class of Mathilde ter Heijne
Selected press
- 2025Vakuum Magazine
- 2025WhiteWall Magazin
- 2025KALTBLUT
- 2024Dazed
- 2024Container Love
- 2024Out & About
- Full press record →