Photographer Olgaç Bozalp challenges traditional ideas of male beauty

Photographer Olgaç Bozalp hasn’t always lived in London. “I was born and raised in Turkey, I’ve been living in London last eight years,” he tells us. “London helped me to see the character of my own culture from the outside.”

“I did my first series in Istanbul with the Turkish men at the beginning of the year and the story received a great response,” Olgaç says of his work. “Then I was asked to photograph Turks in Berlin which was exciting for me because I grew up in Konya province of Turkey, which has a lot expatriate German Turks who come back every year for summer holidays with the attitude of Western culture, but still very much Turkish in their hearts. I guess I was trying to portray the idea [of men who identify as] German Turkish, but keeping or perhaps still holding on to their traditional values.”
 
For his Berlin Turks project for Numero Homme Berlin, Olgaç travelled to Germany to shoot some locals. “I cast most of the guys with my Turkish friend who grew in Berlin,” he says. “We found people in Turkish men’s clubs, the street and even some of them on the day!” His unconventional (for fashion editorial) casting was the result of a conscious decision to move away from the traditional Western standards of beauty. “I realised earlier this year that things like beauty – the way people look – shouldn’t be only what we’re used to seeing, so I decided to find different perspective of beauty.”
 
And as for inspiration, Olgaç doesn’t have far to look. “I have been inspired by my Dad quite a lot actually, because he’s got the way of seeing things that you wouldn’t expect from an ordinary person.”