Safe Space

“All really inhabited space bears the essence of the notion of home.”

Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space

Safe Space was photographed in Budapest in 2021, during the first months after I moved there from Turkey. The project documents the room of my flatmate, Kati, observing the ways she inhabited her personal space and the relationship between a person and the space they make their own.

When I first moved to Budapest, I was a stranger in a foreign land, navigating the challenges of displacement and longing for a sense of belonging. “Safe Space” is a series born from these feelings — a journey to understand what it means to have a sanctuary, a place where one can truly be themselves. In capturing Kati’s personal space, I found a reflection of my own yearning for security and comfort.