Tolga was born in Istanbul in October 1979.

 

During his early childhood years Istanbul, with its periphery, was much more magical, greener, blueer and exotic than it is today; and Tolga was inspired by the natural and textural diversity of it and that of the Black Sea stretching north of Istanbul.

[A short video (age 1 to 4 ) from 8mm films of his childhood]

 

Electronics was another appealing mystery to him. So he spent much of his time drawing all sorts of electronic gadgets. Interestingly the most magnetic devices for him were stuff like microphones, tape machines, catode tubes [yes, he once wanted a catode tube as a birthday present :)], spotlights, cameras, etc... which were all linked to show business somehow! :)

 

And music was another mystery (which later evolved into a passion for electronic music)

 

His first favorite records were Shadows LPs and a disco LP called Hot R.S. Tolga was 4 then. The songs, Slow Blow or Delta Queen on the latter one were his favourites, and Tolga kept asking his parents to play it over and over again. Naturally, in those years he couldn't possibly grab the reason behind the red faces of his parents, that were caused by the erotic pre-orgasm screams of a woman, in that song! :O

 

Tolga's first musical instruments were a mandolin and a bomtempi acoustic toy piano. The black keys were missing, so Tolga broke a hole under the strings (actually metal bars) of it and bended them to get more eerie sounds out of the instrument. Then the first electronic instrument came along; it was a mini keyboard with rubber keys just like a pocket calculator, made in china; then a Casio PT; followed by an MT, then a Yamaha PSS680, then a 790, then a Roland Soundcanvas, an U-220, JV80, JD990, 1080, XV5080, Korg Z1, Triton, Prophecy..... now just software synthesizers. ;)

 

One of Tolga's favorites toy was viewmaster which is a stereoscopic image viewer with thousands of image reels of 3D photos taken all around the world between the 50ies to the 70ies.. "Those images are so realistic (and poetic in a way) that you feel you're looking through a window of a time/place travel ship. To see the stereo images of frozen-in-time people, makes you afraid yet fascinated. And if the instant is from a mountain top, looking down the earth, you lose your balance and you're amazed of the height. And sometimes those instants are from far cultures, they confuse you and you wonder." said Tolga. He still keeps the reels and the original viewer from his childhood along with reels he lately collected. Perhaps viewmaster was one influence that led him to be a photographer.

 

Tolga could never be sure of what to be when he grew up and he kept changing his mind. Either he wanted to be news speaker, or a doctor, or a musician, or a cameraman, or a or a scientist. It is possible to see musical instruments to human organs in his drawings.

 

And he is not sure yet! :)