Deniz Gezmiş Takes to the Streets: From Photograph to Silhouette

Abstract

This chapter analyses the role of media materialities and the means of cultural production in the circulation of the visual representations of Deniz Gezmiş. In analysing the afterlife of the most iconic photograph of Gezmiş, it pays specific attention to alternative media and activist cultures of production that are circumscribed by limited material resources and technical skills. It seeks to understand why the composition was so attractive to activists and the methods by which amateurs remediate and reproduce protest ephemera. It argues that the memorability of Deniz Gezmiş’ iconic portrait is facilitated by its availability for legible and recognizable low fidelity reproduction.