About The Photographer

No object is mysterious. The mystery is your eye - Elisabeth Bowen

My name is Can Esenbel (this is pronounced as Jan as the C is a J).

Here I would like to include a little background on my relationship and approach to photography as it directly informs how I approach my work.

From a young age I have had very bad eyesight (-14'ish). I learned to see the world without actually looking at it, seeing was not something I understood.

One day around 10 years ago I picked up an SLR camera and was dumbstruck. The world became this amazing place – full of fascinating detail and interaction, all connected to a structure and flow. I learned to see.

I am a vision driven photographer. This may seem a strange statement as surely that is an obvious aim for a photographer. Photography however is both art and science and our photos will deeply reflect the value we give to one or the other as horse or cart.

In some small way I aim to take photos that see with fresh eyes, to look at scenes in new ways. In doing so my hope is to create a vehicle for connection, for sparking a flame and hopefully letting something change within us– this is whether the photo is of a person, an animal, a road sign or a mountain.

This is the basis and aim of every photo I take, my aspiration is for the image to mean something to the person viewing it. However I cannot control that so I aim only to make it mean something to the one who took it with the hope that translates outside.

Can
(the photo of me was taken by my good friend Benjamin Riedel)