Thought Enthusiast is an AdHoc Project where we chat with fascinating thought leaders across various facets of music, tech, and culture whose work we admire, simply asking “what’s on your mind?” and “why do you care?” 💭
Ebru Yildiz is a portrait photographer born and raised in Ankara, Turkey and now living in Brooklyn, NY. In 2016, Ebru self published her first book "We've Come So Far: The Last Days of Death By Audio" that chronicles the closing down of the beloved DIY music venue formerly located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Ever since that she has been releasing a series of zines with personal work made with artists she loves.
I am currently working on two book projects. One of them is a zine which is almost done and the other is little more comprehensive book that I am still finding my way in and around it. I feel little lost, to be honest. I am always excited to work on print projects since they always feel more permanent and substantial. Like a leaving a bread crumb for the future or something like that. I also love the idea of being able to go back to a set photographs layed out thoughtfully with love, and flip through pages and remember how it felt to be there as we were making those photographs. That is what I hope people will get from them as well.
I am loving doing morning pages. I started reading Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way back in pandemic and never thought doing the morning pages would last but 3 years into it, I am loving it more everyday. (For those unfamiliar – Morning Pages are three pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing, done first thing in the morning.)
I really enjoyed reading Faith, Hope and Carnage by Nick Cave and Seán O'Hagan. It talks about life around grief and hearing how other people process such profound loss was really comforting.
🕉️ Mantra of the moment
I have always been a very solution oriented person, whenever someone comes to me with a problem, my initial instinct is to try and offer them a solution to solve their problem, make their life easier. But now, I am trying my best to understand if they are looking for comfort or a solution... So far, I find (unlike me) most people look for comfort. And also The Four Agreements: Be impeccable with your word. Don't take anything personal. Never make assumptions. Always do your best!
🍃 New York Film Festival
I am looking forward to watching the new Nuri Bilge Ceylan movie About Dry Grasses during New York Film Festival. I find his movies to be infinitely inspiring and moving.
📝 Traditional content
I will always love consuming content in the old traditional way....It could be looking at photography books or listening to vinyl... I find them more intentional, more focused. You need to sit down and read the newspaper, or a book, flip the pages or you need to put on the record and flip it when you need to..you will need to interact with them and without any doubt they will have your undivided attention. Whereas on the internet, it feels like you are looking at things when you are on the go, you pay so little attention, you skim through paragraphs, I am confident you don't retain most of it.
💿 Mitski
I might be biased since I am involved with it to a degree and maybe I was paying more attention because of the same reason but I thought the way Mitski and her team rolled out her album The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We was excellent. It was so tastefully done and very coordinated. Lots of little meaningful and brilliant ideas under one umbrella. It felt like it is all coming from one place, one voice like all campaigns should.
Follow Ebru Yildiz on Instagram.