Alex Prager
Photographer & Filmmaker
Alex Prager (b.1979) is a Los Angeles-based photographer and filmmaker. Prager’s elaborately staged scenes tap into a shared cultural memory drawing inspiration from a wide range of influences and references including Hollywood cinema, experimental films, popular culture and street photography. Her familiar yet strange images suggest a sense of timelessness while also creating a world that synthesizes fiction and reality. She has had a number of solo museum exhibitions at institutions including the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2014); the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (2013); SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia (2013); and the FOAM Photography Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2012). Prager was also prominently featured in New Photography 2010 at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Prager has been recognized with the FOAM Paul Huf Award (2012), among other honors. Her editorial work has been featured in prominent publications including Garage, Vogue and W, and her film series Touch of Evil, commissioned by The New York Times Magazine, won an Emmy Award in 2012.
Ali Tufan Koç
Journalist
Ali Tufan Koc graduated from Istanbul Technical University and State University of New Paltz from the department of Business Administration. He started his career as a journalist at Tempo Magazine. Then he worked for Radikal, Milliyet and as an editor at GQ Magazine. He is now the editor of Hurriyet.
Alphan Eşeli
Director, Screenwriter
Alphan Eseli is a Turkish film director and screenwriter. He started his career as a commercial and music video director and photographer. His first feature film - The Long Way Home was written and directed by Eseli and was released in 2013. The film has won numerous prestigous international prizes including the Fipresci Prize, Golden Zenith at the Montreal World Film Festival, New Talent ward at Hong Kong Film Festival. It was also nominated for the Sutherland Award at the 57th BFI London Film Festival.
Armand Limnander
Deputy Editor W Magazine
Armand Limnander is the deputy editor of W magazine. Prior to that he was the features director at T: The New York Times Style Magazine, the editor of V Man magazine, and a senior writer at Vogue and Style.com. Limnander grew up in Bogotá, Colombia, and moved to the United States to attend the University of California at Berkeley. He is the author of the books Brazilian Style (Assouline, 2011) and Private: Giancarlo Giammetti (Assouline, 2013).
Arslan Sükan
Contemporary Artist
Arslan Sukan (Ankara, Turkey) graduated from Department of Interior Architecture and Environmental Design at Bilkent University and received his continuing education in photography from New York’s School of Visual Arts. He continued to work as an architect in New York until 2009. After working as an architect, he began his career as an artist in 2009. His works have been exhibited at the Maxxi Museum (Rome), Museum Haus Konstruktiv (Zurich), Triennale Di Milano, Maison des Metallos (Paris), 511 (NYC),Kappatos Gallery, Batagianni Gallery (Athens), NYPH New Visionaries Tobacco Factory (New York), Araart (Seoul), Galerist and Elgiz Museum of Contemporary Art (Istanbul). Sükan lives and works in New York and Istanbul.
Barbaros Altuğ
Author
After working in several magazines, Barbaros Altug started the Istanbul Copyright Agency, the first literary agency representing Turkish authors in 1999. His list of writers includes the greatest names in Turkish literature like Ayse Kulin, Latife Tekin, Hasan Ali Toptas, Halit Ziya Usakligil, Buket Uzuner, Kursat Basar, Mehmet Murat Somer and Halide Edip Adivar. The works of the writers he represents have been published in more than 40 countries. He published a work of fiction in Turkish and Greek with 12 writers from Istanbul called ‘’Istanbul of Writers’’ and is working on a Turkish Literature Series project with US Publisher Dalkey Archive to publish selected Turkish authors in English. Barbaros Altuğ wrote a column in daily Taraf, published his essays in Some Like it Hot in 2013 and published his first novel “we’re good here” in 2014 which will be turned into a movie in 2015.
Carnet De Voyage
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Carnet de Voyage is an ever evolving site specific live show and a collaboration between performing artists Rosey Chan and Mimi Xu. The modular format concert is a sonic and visual journey into the heart of music history, contemporary culture and personal memoir. Rosey and Mimi revisit diverse genres of music, sounds and videos by creating a unique immersive experience with their original compositions and films. Through out their performance the duo showcases a conscious desire on provoking emotions by combining old and new technologies. Carnet de Voyage (French: travelling notebook) is both a testimonial of the past and a pertinent projection into the future. Each performance is impregnated with a space and reflects Rosey and Mimi’s musical and illustrated sketches of a time and a place.
Craig McDean
Photographer, Filmmaker
Craig McDean is a photographer and filmmaker who is renowned for his striking fashion imagery and portraiture. Having discovered photography by taking pictures of his rocker friends in the North of England, McDean moved to London, where he assisted photographers before striking out on his own with assignments for i-D and The Face. In 1999, McDean made his highly anticipated publishing debut with “I Love Fast Cars”, his homage to the world of drag racing and the community who love it. In 2004, his second book “Lifescapes” was published by Steidl/Dangin. McDean currently lives in New York, and has photographed campaigns for Dior, Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Armani, Estee Lauder, and Calvin Klein. He regularly contributes to a range of international fashion publications including W, American, French, British and Italian Vogue, and AnOther Magazine. He is a 2008 recipient of the ICP Infinity Award.
Dan Thawley
Journalist & Editor
Dan Thawley is an Australian born journalist and editor. Thawley joined fashion title A Magazine Curated By, as online editor in 2009 and became editor in chief in 2010, working with the likes of Giambattista Valli (2010), Rodarte (2011) and Stephen Jones (2013). A wider interest in the arts and discovering young fashion talent has led to freelance contributions for international titles including American Vogue, Vogue Italia, Interview Magazine, i-D, GQ China, AnOther Magazine, *Wallpaper and New York Magazine’s The Cut.
Daniel Arsham
Contemporary Artist
New York based artist Daniel Arsham straddles the line between art, architecture and performance. Raised in Miami, Arsham attended the Cooper Union in New York City where he received the Gelman Trust Fellowship Award in 2003. Architecture is a prevalent subject throughout his work: environments with eroded walls and stairs going nowhere, landscapes where nature overrides structures, and a general sense of playfulness within existing architecture. Arsham’s work has been shown at PS1 in New York, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Miami, The Athens Bienniale in Athens, Greece, The New Museum in New York, Mills College Art Museum in Oakland, California and Carré d’Art de Nîmes, France among others. A first monograph of Arsham’s work was published by the French Centre National des arts plastiques and a second one was published by Galerie Perrotin in 2012. Arsham is represented by Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin in Paris, Hong Kong and New York, OHWOW in Los Angeles, Baro Galeria in Sao Paulo and Pippy Houldsworth in London.
Delfina Delettrez Fend
iDesigner, Jeweler
Designer and jeweler based in Rome. She founded her company, Delfina Delettrez, in 2007. Since the inception of her brand, she has developed a signature perspective using a wide material vocabulary, manifested in her use of surrealist and natural iconography including hands, eyes, bees, and lips. She has a store in Rome located on via del Governo Vecchio. She is the youngest designer to join the permanent collection of fine jewelry at the Louvre’s Musée des Arts Decoratifs in October 2010. In June 2012, gallery Antonella Villanova featured a solo exhibition in Florence entitled Delphinarium, a comprehensive look at Delettrez’ path as a jeweler. In December 2012, a solo exhibition of Delfina Delettrez was showcased by Antonella Villanova gallery at the Design Miami in 2012.
Edward Enninful
Stylist
Edward Enninful is a British fashion stylist, and current fashion and style director of W magazine. He was appointed fashion director of British youth culture magazine i-D at age 18. Inspired by London’s club scene in the 1980s, Enninful’s work during this period captured the frenetic energy and creative zeitgeist of the time. One of Enninful’s most influential works is Vogue Italia’s July 2008 All Black issue, featuring only black models, which became the magazine’s top-selling issue. In 2011, Enninful was tapped to take the style directorship at W magazine, a high-end Condé Nast title that had struggled in the late 2000s. He brought relevance to the magazine’s fashion editorials and put a twist on many of its cover stars’ public image.
Emel Çelebi
Documentary Filmmaker
Emel Çelebi was born and raised in Istanbul. She has studied English literature. She worked in various magazines as an editor, interpreter and writer. Her first film ‘Housekeeper’ has won the Best Documentary Award at the 43rd Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival and the First Prize in the 9th Women’s Film Festival in Seoul. In 2008, she directed the documentary ‘Sisters of Lilith. Ain’t No Cinderellas!’. She organizes the DOCUMENTARIST- Istanbul Documentary Days and writes articles for Gate Magazine.
Francesco Carrozzini
Director, Photographer
Francesco Carrozzini is an Emmy award nominated director, well known internationally for his cinematic style in portrait photography. Francesco’s career started in 2001 at age 19, while still in college as philosophy major, when he directed a promo for Italian MTV. He has since directed short films, documentaries, commercials and music videos which have been featured in such competitions as the Venice Film Festival and the Lions in cannes. His photographs have appeared on the covers and pages of Vanity Fair, L’Uomo Vogue, The New Yorker, W, Rolling Stone, Pop, New York Magazine and Vogue Italia, amongst others. He has photographed personalities as diverse as Robert De Niro, Kanye West, Naomi Campbell, Angelina Jolie, Michael Bloomberg, Tony Blair, Keith Richards, Beyonce and Jeff Koons, to name a few. Francesco lives and works between LA and NY.
Fuat Ergin
Rap Artist
Fuat Ergin was born in Berlin, in 1972. He wrote his first rap song in 1992. Starting from this year, he joined hip-hop jam-sessions in Berlin. He had many concerts nearly in every Turkish city and also in Germany, Holland, Sweden and North Cyprus. He recorded his first professional album, titled ‘Hassickdir’ in 1995. He interwieved with the important names including Beastie Boys, Nas, Fugess, Das EFX, House of Pain, GURU from Gangstarr. With the support of German state, he gave rap courses to Turkish, Arab and Italian children. In 1999, he organized his first rap tour in Germany with Soul of Mischief, Swollen Members, DJ Hype and Kool Savas. He contributed world renowed bands in Berlin. 2002 was a turning point for Turkish rap. Fuat was the part of RZA’s (Wu – Tang Clan) ‘The World According to RZA’ globally released album with a song. Since 2004, he has been living in Turkey, educating children, giving concerts and working on new albums.
Giambattista Valli
Fashion Designer
Giambattista Valli is an Italian fashion designer. He is from Rome, Italy. His collections, both ready to wear and Haute couture are presented annually during the Paris Fashion Week. Giambattista Valli shows four times a year during Paris Fashion Week. He also designs an eponymous line of accessories, has a deal with Italian top fur-maker Ciwifurs for his own fur coats and jackets and designs a line for the oldest sporting jackets manufacturer, Moncler. His clothes have been worn by the likes of celebrities Penélope Cruz, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jessica Biel, Natalie Portman, Diane Kruger, Halle Berry, Zoe Saldana, Julianne Moore, Brooke Shields and royalty like Her Majesty Rania of Jordan and princess Clotilde Courau.
Gianluca Longo
Fashion Editor & Journalist
Gianluca Longo is an Italian-born fashion and style editor, and esteemed journalist. He is now Associate Editor of Inspire Magazine (The Mail on Sunday’s own Luxury Supplement), Contributing Editor to Harpers’ Bazaar UK, Elle Luxe, Conde Nast Traveller and Tatler Russia. As a fixture at the designers ready-to-wear and Haute Couture shows, Gianluca has become recognized as a fashion expert. He is part of the British Fashion Council Press Committee, and he is consulting at the Victoria and Albert Museum, where he regularly hosts fashion talks.
Gürcan Keltek
Director
Gurcan Keltek has graduated from Dokuz Eylul University from the department of Cinema and Television. After directing various short films, he started to work as an assistant in advertising sector. He has been working at Böcek Yap›m as a director. He directed numerous films and documentaries including “Colony” (2014), Kovboylar ve Melekler (Cowboys and Angels),1995 , Kan Gürültü Yapar (Blood Makes Noise), 1995.
Harvey Keitel
Producer, Actor
Producer and actor from New York. The son of a Polish mother and Romanian father who ran a Brooklyn luncheonette, Keitel was frequently reprimanded for cutting class at P.S. 100 and Abraham Lincoln High School. After being asked to leave Alexander Hamilton Vocational School for truancy, he was sent to Lebanon with the Marine Corps. Upon his return, he joined New York’s Actors Studio where he studied under Frank Corsaro, Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg. Soon after, Keitel met up with a young student director by the name of Martin Scorsese, and they began the first of many collaborations. The duo made their onscreen feature debuts with 1968’s “Who’s That Knocking at My Door?” and followed up five years later with “Mean Streets”, a film that earned them both fame and critical acclaim. Riding on this success through the 1970s, Keitel and Scorsese put out two more seminal films, “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” and “Taxi Driver”. Throughout the 1990s, Keitel continued to display his versatility, giving solid performances in everything from the arthouse drama “Lulu on the Bridge” in 1998 to the goofy Adam Sandler vehicle “Little Nicky” in 2000.
JR
Photographer, Contemporary Artist
JR exhibits freely in the streets of the world, catching the attention of people who are not typical museum visitors. In 2006, he created Portrait of a Generation, portraits of suburban “thugs” that he posted, in huge formats, in the bourgeois districts of Paris. This illegal project became “official” when the Paris City Hall wrapped its building with JR’s photos. In 2007, with Marco, he made Face 2 Face, the biggest illegal exhibition ever. JR posted huge portraits of Israelis and Palestinians face to face in eight Palestinian and Israeli cities. In 2008, he embarked on a long international trip for Women Are Heroes, in which he underlines the dignity of women who are often the targets of conflicts, and created The Wrinkles of the City. In 2010, his film Women Are Heroes was presented at Cannes. In 2011 he received the TED Prize, after which he created the Inside Out project. His most recent project involves a collaboration with New York City Ballet.
Juliette Lewis
Actress
Juliette Lewis has been recognized as one of Hollywood’s most talented and versatile actors of her generation since she first stunned audiences and critics alike with her Oscar-nominated performance as “Danielle Bowden” in Cape Fear (1991). To date, she has worked with some of the most revered directors in the industry, including Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Lasse Hallström, Oliver Stone and Garry Marshall. Whether lending dramatic authenticity or a natural comedic flair to her roles, Lewis graces the screen with remarkable range and an original and captivating style.
Livia Firth
Creative Director of Eco Age
Livia Firth is the creative director of Eco Age - a consultancy company specialising in enabling businesses to achieve growth and add value through sustainability. Firth began her career as a documentary producer. Her documentary, “In Prison My Whole Life”, directed by Marc Evan, won Best Documentary at the International Human Rights Awards in Geneva in 2007. In 2007, Firth and her brother Nicola Giuggioli (company CEO) founded Eco Age, attracting a wide array of clients both in the fashion and in the corporate world. In 2009 Firth founded the Green Carpet Challenge (GCC) with British journalist Lucy Siegle. The world-renowned GCC is a project which pairs glamour and ethics to raise the profile of sustainable fashion. In September 2012, the Green Carpet Challenge and American Express teamed up to create the Green Cut - a unique exhibition pairing eight seminal fashion designers with eight iconic films to create a collection of striking gowns, all following the GCC guidelines. In November 2012, Firth was awarded a UN Leader of Change Award for the GCC initiative. Firth is also an Oxfam Global Ambassador.
Mike Figgis
Director
Mike Figgis is a writer, director and composer. From roots in experimental theatre (The People Show) and music, he has gone on to direct over 20 feature films and documentaries, as well as a number of television episodes and curated a festival, Just Tell The Truth at the Royal Opera. He is recognised as a visionary filmmaker who thrives on taking artistic risks, moving from ‘mainstream’ movies such as ‘Internal Affairs’ and the award-winning ‘Leaving Las Vegas’ to more eclectic personal films such as ’Suspension of Disbelief’. He was a pioneer in exploring the possibilities of digital video technology which led him to conceive of and direct ‘Timecode’ the first real time feature film ever made. In 2011 Figgis directed Lucretia Borgia for the ENO, it was the first Opera transmitted live in 3D. Figgis has published several books - ‘Digital film making’ has been translated into 10 languages and has become text book for students. He teaches at several universities internationally and is currently working on a second book about screen writing. This summer he will be taking part in Doug Aitken’s Station to Station, a 4 week project at the Barbican, as well as starting pre-production on a feature film, commencing January 2016.
Muammer Brav
Film Critic
The editor and the presenter of TV programme “Cinema: My Life“, Muammer Brav is a graduate of Istanbul University Department of Economics and has a PhD in Industrial Design. While studying, he coordinated the Istanbul Film Festival for six years. Muammer Brav’s interviews are published in various magazines and newspapers, alongside his film and film festival reviews.
Müjde Yazıcı
Journalist
Mujde Yazici was born in 1981. Müjde Yaz›c› has studied Political Science and Public Administration at Istanbul University in 1999. She was the editor of Radikal Design and reporter of art and culture section, she also wrote articles on music. Yaz›c› contributed varios magazines including Billboard, Altyaz›, Tempo, Aktüel, Milliyet Sanat, Milliyet Cadde, Basatap, Zero. She was the editor of ZERO Istanbul. In 2011, she made ‘Ünkapan›’ documentary that focuses on the battle between the musicians and digital technology and the process that the music sector going through. She also shot ‘Gurbetin Sesi: Das ist Musiki’ documentary on Turkish music and musicians in Germany. Until 2015 January, she had been working as an editor at Milliyet. She still writes articles for Milliyet and various magazines.
Stephen Jones
Milliner
Stephen Jones is a leading British milliner based in London, who is considered one of the world’s most radical and important milliners of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. He is also one of the most prolific, having created hats for the catwalk shows of many leading couturiers and fashion designers, such as John Galliano at Dior and Vivienne Westwood. His work is known for its inventiveness and the high level of technical expertise with which he realises his ideas. Jones co-curated the 2009 exhibition Hats: An Anthology for the Victoria and Albert Museum. Diana, the Princess of Wales was his regular customer, as well as Alexander McQueen’s muse Isabella Blow.
Sven Schuman
Journalist
Sven Schumann is a writer and the founder of online interview magazine “The Talks”. Schumann has contributed to a wide range of international magazines, including “Purple”, where he remains an Editor at Large. In 2011, he launched “The Talks”, where each week he publishes an interview with a different cultural influencer. Past participants include Woody Allen, Bret Easton Ellis, Patti Smith, Gus Van Sant and Yohji Yamamoto.
Trevor Paglen
Geographer, Artist, Author
Trevor Paglen is an American artist, geographer and author. Paglen’s work deliberately blurs lines between science, contemporary art, journalism and other disciplines to construct unfamiliar, yet meticulously researched ways to see and interpret the world around us. He is the author of five books and numerous articles on subjects including experimental geography, state secrecy, military symbology, photography and visuality.
Waris Ahluwalia
Actor, Designer
Waris Ahluwalia, described by the New York Times as a “modern day Marco Polo” is driven by a deep and abiding desire to create products and experiences that captivate, transport, and shift perception. Working across the globe, and across disciplines, Waris exhibits an unwavering commitment to creating a more thoughtful way of living. His HOUSE of WARIS jewels bring together old world techniques to hatch timeless creations, coveted by collectors and sold at the world’s finest boutiques. His partnership with Forevermark, a De Beers company, ensures not only the beauty of the diamonds but also the positive impact on local communities. Waris is included in Vogue’s 10 Most Impactful people. Working with the finest tailors has earned him a place on Vanity Fair’s Best Dressed List, amongst others. As an actor Waris has worked with some of the most influential directors of our time including Wes Anderson, Spike Lee and Luca Guadagnino. Believing in the art of storytelling, he appears in a dozen other movie shorts and cinematic creations of his own. Most recently, Waris launched HOUSE of WARIS RARE, a celebration of craftsmanship and the artisan. This devotion to craft is a chance to bring tradition into the modern age.
Zülfü Livaneli
Author & Poet
Zulfu Livaneli, born in 1946, is a bestselling Turkish author and poet who is considered as one of the most significant and influential authors and intellectuals of his time. His book has won numerous literary awards, both in his home country and abroad. His works and cultural and political activities and contributions to world peace were recognized by UNESCO and he was appointed Goodwill Ambassador to UNESCO.
Alex Prager
Photographer & Filmmaker
Ali Tufan Koç
Journalist
Alphan Eşeli
Director, Screenwriter
Armand Limnander
Deputy Editor W Magazine
Arslan Sükan
Contemporary Artist
Barbaros Altuğ
Author
Carnet De Voyage
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Craig McDean
Photographer, Filmmaker
Dan Thawley
Journalist & Editor
Daniel Arsham
Contemporary Artist
Delfina Delettrez Fend
iDesigner, Jeweler
Edward Enninful
Stylist
Emel Çelebi
Documentary Filmmaker
Francesco Carrozzini
Director, Photographer
Fuat Ergin
Rap Artist
Giambattista Valli
Fashion Designer
Gianluca Longo
Fashion Editor & Journalist
Gürcan Keltek
Director
Harvey Keitel
Producer, Actor
JR
Photographer, Contemporary Artist
Juliette Lewis
Actress
Livia Firth
Creative Director of Eco Age
Mike Figgis
Director
Muammer Brav
Film Critic
Müjde Yazıcı
Journalist
Stephen Jones
Milliner
Sven Schuman
Journalist
Trevor Paglen
Geographer, Artist, Author
Waris Ahluwalia
Actor, Designer
Zülfü Livaneli
Author & Poet
