Melih Dönmezer: Strange and Sequential

A Parallel Planets piece by Unknown

I've always been told that good story, careful composition, and proper exposure all make a photo impressive and even enduring. Lately, however, I realized that there's one more detail that makes a shot almost effortlessly eye-catching: the element of mystery, which often overlaps with the eerie, the surreal, and the melancholy.

I see it all the time in many of the photos that I recently find visually arresting at the very least, the works of Martin Vlach, Arthur Tress, and Andrea Torres Balaguer all notable examples. All of them resonate with this certain air of mystery that is further highlighted by the absence of color. Joining this roster of artists who I find to have an eye for mysterious images is Turkish photographer Melih Dönmezer, who seems to be as just as mysterious as his interesting work.

Like the works of the talented photographers mentioned above, Melih's predominantly black and white images are a tasteful blend of the eerie, the strange, the melancholy, and the minimalist. They show a mix of subjects -- lone figures, abstract landscapes, animals, patterns, some bits of street and architecture here and there -- that are reduced to mind-boggling characters in his strangely captivating narrative. Much of their visual appeal and impact are rendered through gritty textures, ghostly blurs, underexposures, high contrast, film burns, and moody double exposures -- all of which I notice, commend, and appreciate because of my bias inclination for film.

Not much is out there regarding Melih's processes or his sources of inspiration, perhaps other than the assumption that his interesting images were borne out of clever use of both film photography and digital photo manipulation. However, this is just one of the enigmatic details surrounding the mostly monochrome masterpieces and the artist behind it. Another is how he names each photo with numbers instead of words, leaving viewers to wonder if it's some strange code or if a photo belongs to a secret sequence.


Browsing through Melih's work was such a visceral experience for me, as someone who has a fascination for the strange and the macabre, and a love for the intensely moody and mysterious feel that film photography can deliver. I even dare say that the heady atmosphere in each photograph is something I now want to strive to see in my own work.

Visit Melih's Flickr Page to see the rest of his impressive photos.