The Story:

The series Between Heaven and Earth was, quite literally, born in space. In 2010, while flying from New York to Istanbul for an editorial assignment, I couldn’t sleep. I lifted the window shade and looked outside. What I saw was extraordinary—there was only a faint horizon line, no discernible scale, no movement, no sound—just the quiet presence of clouds and infinite space. Strangely, I felt deeply comforted by that sight. It was otherworldly and meditative; nature and the universe felt omnipresent. I took several photographs. The experience was beyond words—ethereal, silent, and still. For a brief moment, all the clutter and worries of modern life disappeared.

Those images became the genesis of a series that took three more years to complete: Ether I, II, and III. Although simple in composition, they profoundly transformed the way I perceived the world. Unbeknownst to me at the time, they marked a turning point—a shift in my visual curiosity, vision, and aesthetic sensibility.

Amid a demanding commercial career, it wasn’t until 2013 that I could return to this visual and spiritual exploration, expanding the series beyond Ether. During that period, I also witnessed the rise of social media and the obsession with the selfie culture. I was deeply unsettled by this phenomenon—the growing self-absorption, the curated falsity of images, the erosion of authenticity. Photography, once a means of connection and observation, was becoming a tool for self-display. I began to feel disillusioned with my profession. It seemed as though humanity was slowly losing touch with its essence—one selfie, one food plate at a time.

That realization became a catalyst. I decided to move in the opposite direction—to create images that were stripped down to their purest form: bare, minimal, and contemplative. I wanted my work to transcend aesthetics, to carry philosophical meaning, and to challenge perception through thought, idea, and composition. My goal became to make images that invite stillness—moments for quiet reflection, meditation, and understanding the world without needing to define it. As an observer of life, I sought to remove all visual clutter and return to the essence of things.

The first part of the series was created in the summer of 2013 while vacationing in Santorini—the land of Plato and the legend of Atlantis. Perhaps that explains the mystical energy I felt there: a quiet wisdom in the air, as if civilization itself were being reborn. Each morning, before sunrise, I would meditate on a hill overlooking the sea. The darkness before dawn, the silence of night, the salt in the air, and the warm Aegean wind created a perfect environment for introspection. It was one of the rare times in my life when I felt completely connected—to the Earth and to something beyond it. After these meditations, I began translating those moments into images. It was a transcendent experience—a feeling of oneness.

The second part of the series took place in December 2013, along the Celtic Sea in Devon, England. Once again, I found myself immersed in a landscape of sea and sky that demanded my attention. Certain places in nature seem to call upon you, and this was one of them. I knew instantly it was the continuation of what began that summer. From meditation, I moved toward an exploration of relativity—between the vastness of the universe and the scale of human existence—and into questions of perception, illusion, knowledge, and spirituality. I began to question humanity’s place within the continuum of space and time, and how these forces are intertwined.

Between Heaven and Earth emerges from this intersection—of meditation and philosophy, of silence and inquiry. It is a visual reflection on the human condition, and an invitation to contemplate our fragile yet profound connection to the universe.