Norman Behrendt (* 1981 in East Berlin) lives and works in and from Berlin.
2012/13 he became first known for his photographs of Berlin’s graffiti scene and his award winning photobook »burning down the house, 2007 – 2012«
His photographic work that mainly circulates on the boundaries between documentary and conceptual photography deals with the individual, cultural and political significance of places and people defining them.
»Brave New Turkey« is an ongoing project based on a conceptual approach to document newly built a Neo-Ottoman-Style mosques in the urban landscape of Ankara and Istanbul.
Since 2014 Norman Behrendt regularly travels to Turkey and visits the sprawling suburban districts of both cities, whose rapidly built high-rise developments manifest the economical and demographical boom of Turkey.
Along with the massive housing construction programs came a second massive construction project: mosques!
His pictures reflect a phenomenon as a symbol of change and power that reaches beyond national borders. Since 1987, the number of mosques in Turkey has grown from 60,000 to more than 85,000 in 2013, a ratio of almost 1,000 mosques a year!
Behrendt proofs the importance of good documentary photography today – to simply bring to visibility for the world to see what is going on around us!
TO THE ARTISTS WEBSITE