Loose Joints Studio

Loose Joints Publishing

Katil Var by British photojournalist Charlie Kirk is an personal record of time spent in Turkey between 2012–15. Katil Var – There is a killer in Turkish – looks at this moment of great political unrest in the country, centred around the political abuses of power by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, president of Turkey. Beginning with the Gezi Park protests, Kirk followed the Soma mining disaster, the refugee crisis, Newroz festivals and the loss of Erdoğan's AKP party's majority in the summer of 2015. Shortly afterwards the artist was deported from the country for national security reasons.

Initially edited down from 40,000 photographs, Kirk's book is an object in-between, at once precious and utilitarian. It is a small, intimate open-spine softcover but with an intricately hand-folded dust jacket and bold, visceral typography drawn from the visual language of 1970s Istanbul, another period of political engagement and hope in the country.