Face to Face on the Front Lines: TIME Talks to Bulent Kilic

5 minute read

This year Bulent Kilic’s powerful, assured work — made most recently in the aftermath of the deadly coal mine collapse in Soma and earlier amid the political unrest in his native Turkey and the turmoil in Ukraine — brought him wide attention and established him as a force to watch on the news wires. TIME talked to Kilic about his pictures and his formative years — and discovered a bold young photographer whose compassion and integrity are as strong as his imagery.


Bulent Kilic was born 35 years ago in the Eastern Turkish province now known as Tunceli—an area dominated by Alawite Kurds and haunted by the memory of the Dersim Massacre, a mid-1930s Turkish military campaign against the region’s minority groups that claimed the lives of thousands and displaced many more. When Kilic was just five-years-old his father, a teacher, relocated the family to Istanbul. There, living in the city’s Uskudar district, “opposite a famous mosque, from where prayers rung out loudly,” Kilic says he was awakened to the fact that “he had entered an entirely different world.”

Kilic studied journalism and photography at the University of Ege during which time he became a correspondent and a journalist for the socialist newspaper Evrensel, taking, developing and printing his own pictures. By 2003 he had aspirations to work in mainstream media; but two years later, after meeting with a foreign photo agency and realizing “that my real dream was through this path,” he joined AFP as a stringer.

Kilic, like most photojournalists who work for news agencies, has covered his fair share of sport, fashion, conflict, and politics over the past decade, mostly in his native Turkey while major stories unfolded elsewhere. “We can’t excel in all of these [disciplines] but we can adapt to a few, ” Kilic says. “The benefit of shooting sports is that you become faster at processing what you see, your reflexes improve.”

Things changed dramatically for him in 2011, when AFP assigned him to northern Syria, to cover the civil war.

“When they started to shoot artillery into Idlib [in northwestern Syria] I quickly realized that I wasn’t ready for this experience,” Kilic says. “It was like a game of roulette, with artillery dropping left, right and center around us.”

During 2012 and 2013, Kilic visited Syria seven more times and, although he felt more prepared, he says the conditions remained extremely difficult. “There are no laws, the situation in those lands is like the movie Mad Max,” he says. “Civilians are forced to migrate from one spot to another while they are attacked by inhumane murderers.” Kilic found making photographs of those displaced in large cities and in the refugee camps distressing, while the kidnap and murder of a fellow photojournalist Olivier Voisin affected him deeply, but he kept working.

Kilic’s compassion for his subjects is evident. Earlier this year he covered the unrest in Kiev and says he felt a connection with the activists: “The solidarity in the communal squares, the 24 hours of tea and food preparations and the kindness and sincerity of the people really touched me.” He says he also felt their loss.

Beyond his powerful photographs from the barricades, Kilic also focused on quieter moments—heavily etched portraits of the protesters that reveal the emotional weight of their struggle. Of a picture he made of a protestor who threw a molotov cocktail, for example, he says that “it is important to see the portrait, because the facial expression is strong enough to give you the story.”

As many photographers moved to Crimea, Kilic chose instead to return to Turkey.

“The events in Turkey are complicated and I had to make time for my own country,” he says. “Sometimes a photo that you spend months trying to capture in a foreign country can be found a few miles away from your own home.” Kilic’s arrival in early March coincided with the death of Berkin Elvan, a 15-year-old teenager who died of injuries he sustained amid the 2013 demonstrations when he was hit by a police tear-gas canister while buying bread for his family. Kilic covered the funeral and the surrounding unrest. As the Turkish government closed down YouTube and Twitter and international condemnation over censorship within the country grew, Kilic documented election rallies — photographing with the same confident, sure eye that marked his work in Ukraine.

“The national and international agencies in Turkey have an important job to do,” he says. “Censorship is our country’s biggest problem.”

Kilic’s most recent work documents the horrific explosion and collapse of the Soma coal mine in the western Turkish province of Manisa, which killed more than 300 miners. It was the deadliest industrial disaster in Turkish history, with many saying it highlighted Turkey’s abysmal work-safety record. Emotions in the crowds who gathered at the scene of the explosion were high, Kilic says. “People were shouting and crying as miners, most of them already dead, were carried out by emergency staff,” he adds. “They were poor workers, neglected by the government.”

In the wake of the catastrophe, much of the public’s anger has been directed at Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose reaction to the disaster was widely seen as abrasive and insensitive.

“It is important how you take a picture,” Kilic notes. “It is also important what kind of a person you are and how you choose to live your life.”


Bulent Kilic is a photographer for AFP based in Istanbul.

Phil Bicker is a senior photo editor at TIME.


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A man kisses his son who was rescued from after an explosion in a coal mine which killed at least 284 miners in Manisa, Turkey, May 13, 2014. Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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An injured miner is carried by rescuers after an explosion in a coal mine in Manisa, Turkey, May 13, 2014. Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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An injured miner is carried by rescuers after an explosion in a coal mine in Manisa, Turkey, May 13, 2014. Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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A miner is helped by friends after an explosion in a coal mine in Manisa, Turkey, May 13, 2014.Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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An injured miner is carried by rescuers after an explosion in a coal mine on Manisa, Turkey, May 13, 2014.Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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A miner came out helped by friends after an explosion in Manisa, Turkey, May 13, 2014. Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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Miners change their clothes in an outside building after searching for hours for their co-workers who remain trapped undergroun in the western Turkish province of Manisa, May 14, 2014.Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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A miner reacts after being affected with toxic gas while searching for co-workers who remain trapped underground the western Turkish province of Manisa, May 14, 2014.Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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Boots of miners are pictured in an outside building after searching for hours hundreds of co-workers who remain trapped underground in the western Turkish province of Manisa, May 14, 2014.Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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People cry during a funeral ceremony for miners who died in an explosion in western Turkish province of Manisa, May 15, 2014.Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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People dig graves for miners in a cemetery during the funeral ceremony of miners who died in an explosion, in the western Turkish province of Manisa, May 15, 2014.Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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People mourn in a a cemetery during the funeral ceremony of miners who died in an explosion, in the western Turkish province of Manisa, May 15, 2014.Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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Duygu Colak, reacts as she sits in front of her husband Ugur's grave during a funeral ceremony in the western town of Soma in the Manisa province. Turkey, May 15, 2014. Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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A woman prays for miners during a funeral at Soma in Manisa, Turkey, May 15, 2014 . Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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A protester waves a black flag during clashes with riot police in Kadikoy, on the Anatolian side of Istanbul, March 11, 2014. Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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The coffin of Berkin Elvan is carried in Istanbul, March 11, 2014. Berkin Elvan, who had been in a coma since June 2013 after being struck in the head by a gas canister during a police crackdown on protesters, died March 11.Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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A young girl is pictured after she was wounded during clashes between riot-police and prostestors after the funeral of Berkin Elvan, the 15-year-old boy who died from injuries suffered during last year's anti-government protests, in Istanbul on March 12, 2014. Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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Supporters of Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan hold a giant Turkish flag during an election rally in Istanbul March 23, 2014. Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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A scarecrow like mock anti-government protestor is pictured on a barricade between protestors and government forces in Kiev, Ukraine, Feb. 21, 2014Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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Protesters burn as they stand behind burning barricades during clashes with police in Kiev, Ukraine, Feb. 20, 2014. Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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An anti-government demonstrator throws a burning tire as he build a barricade on February 21, 2014 at the Independent square in Kiev. Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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Protesters build a barricade early in the morning on at Independence Square in Kiev, Ukraine, Feb. 21, 2014.Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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A crowd of people attend a rally at Independence Square in Kiev, Ukraine, Feb. 22, 2014.Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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Center: An alleged sniper and member of the pro-government forces is beaten by anti-government protestors in Kiev, Ukraine, Feb. 22, 2014. Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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People carry a coffin of a man who was killed during recent clashes, as they gather at Independence Square on Feb. 22, 2014. Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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An anti-government protestor waits at the entrance of Independence Square in Kiev, Ukraine, Feb. 23, 2014. Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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Crosses and flowers left by people near a makeshift memorial in homage to anti-government protesters killed in clashes with riot police on Kiev's Independence Square, Feb. 24, 2014. Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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People mourn on Kiev's Independence Square, Feb. 25, 2014. Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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A woman cries on Kiev's Independence Square, Feb. 25, 2014. Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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People hold a large crucifix during a procession at Kiev's Independence Square, Feb. 25, 2014. Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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Women walk in front of the Dinamo Kiev's stadium in Kiev, Ukraine, Feb. 25, 2014.Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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Women hold pictures of protesters who were killed in clashes with police during recent demonstrations as they take part in a commemerative procession in central Kiev, Ukraine, Feb. 26, 2014. Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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A protestor rests near barricades in central Kiev, Ukraine, Feb. 26, 2014. Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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Syrians mourn during the funeral of 17 year old Free Syrian Army member Mahmud Derwish after he was killed by the Syrian army during a clash at Bab al-Hawa near Idlib, Syria, July 19, 2012. Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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A dummy is displayed in an apartment used by rebel fighters in the Salaheddine neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria, Feb. 16, 2013. Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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A Syrian shepherd cares for his flock near the ruins of the ancient Roman city of of Serjilla in the northwestern province of Idlib, Syria, March 19, 2013. Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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Women mourn for victims of a Turkish air raid at the Gulyazi Village cemetery in Sirnak province, Turkey, Dec. 30, 2011. Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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People gather in Tunceli, Turkey, Jan. 18, 2013 to pay a final tribute to Kurdish activist Sakine Cansiz who was assassinated in Paris.Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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A newly married couple walks up a hill with a view of the city of Antakya, Turkey, Aug. 29, 2013. Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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Youths look out from an observation point at the city of Antakya, Turkey, Aug. 29, 2013.Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images
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Storks fly over the border between Turkey and Syria, as they prepare to migrate on Sept. 1, 2013.Bulent Kilic—AFP/Getty Images

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