The Other Shore — Research, writing & design by Nazlı Can
The Other Shore
Research, writing & designVisual essay · 2026
The Mediterranean is one sea, photographed as two different places.
The Other Shore is a visual essay written for Image Phenomenology — A Situated Investigation of the Gaze, at Istituto Marangoni Milano, under Prof. Marta Martina. It reads Ekin Özbiçer’s Replica (2016): the all-inclusive resorts of Antalya, built as copies of European and Ottoman buildings.
Sicily and Puglia are sold as timeless — linen, white stone, measured light. Turkey sits on the same water and is sold as ornament. Özbiçer photographs the most literal consequence available: a coast where the backdrop has actually been built.
I studied architecture before I came to fashion, and the essay reads the replica hotels the way an architect would — by walking round the back. I wrote the 1,655 words and designed the seven-page document.
When a classification becomes strong enough, it stops being a way of looking and becomes a way of building.
The document
All photographs reproduced in the essay are from Replica (2016) © Ekin Özbiçer, shown here — as in the original document — for academic study and criticism. The writing, diagrams and layout are my own.
Credits