Posted on by Matt Gilligan

This Artist Makes Interesting Photo Collages of People Who Live Very Different Lives

Art challenges us to see things from a new perspective. Turkish artist Uğur Gallenkuş is based in Istanbul, Turkey and is known for his photo collages.

A digital artist, Gallenkuş focuses on poverty, war zones, and refugees. He uses his art to spark conversations between their lives and those of people who are more privileged.

Here are 21 of his most powerful works.

21. Turkish-backed Syrian rebels

20. Refugee in the Aegean Sea

19. Child Laborer vs. Student

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A child carries bricks to an oven near Nyamlel, South Sudan on March 22, 2018. Child labour has been on the rise in South Sudan, a country where 60 percent of the population is under 18 and Unicef says that over 70 percent of children don’t attend school. In Nyamlel, up to 30 children work in the brickmaking business and they make between 50-100 South Sudanese Pounds (1 USD = 240 SSP on the black market). A brick factory owner said that he hires children because they are cheaper and he additionally thinks he is helping families survive. The economy of South Sudan is one of the world's most underdeveloped with South Sudan having little existing infrastructure and the highest maternal mortality and female illiteracy rates in the world as of 2011. South Sudan exports timber to the international market. The region also contains many natural resources such as petroleum, iron ore, copper, chromium ore, zinc, tungsten, mica, silver, gold, diamonds, hardwoods, limestone and hydropower. The oilfields in the south have been significant to the economy since the latter part of the 20th century. South Sudan has the third-largest oil reserves in Sub-Saharan Africa. The country's economy, as in many other developing countries, is heavily dependent on agriculture. . Photo: Stefanie Glinski @stephglinski @afpphoto . #ParalelEvrenSavaşBarış 📷

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18. Asleep vs. Resting Migrant

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A migrant rests in front of a police barricade after Turkish riot police blocked the road towards Edirne on September 21, 2015 in Istanbul. A new march by migrants trying to reach Europe overland from Turkey was blocked by police outside Istanbul today. Around 700 mostly Syrian men, women and children from a group that had been blocked for the past week at Istanbul's main bus station set out overnight on footfor the northwestern city of Edirne, 250 kilometres (150 miles) away. At the end of 2015, in an agreement between the European Union and Turkey, Turkey agreed to prevent migrants from crossing into Europe on the condition of some terms and payment of 3 billion euros. As a result of this obstruction, the migrants chose to reach Europe through the Aegean Sea by illegal means. . Photo: Ozan Köse @ozannkoseee @afpphoto . #ParalelEvrenSavaşBarış📷

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17. Rio vs. Military Aircraft

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16. Student vs. Arrestee

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The most important characteristic of Homo Sapiens is that can think. Sometimes having different thoughts (or even thinking) can be dangerous and deadly, depending on the time, geography and the government you are in. For those who have never known you, you are a target to be destroyed. Societies that have peaceful thoughts on art, philosophy or problems are always win. Those who put pressure on those with different opinions are always doomed to lose. To think is good. If you don't think, you're not a homo sapiens. Photo’s Story; A young palestinian boy wearing a hang mans noose in a symbolic protest against the Bank of Palestine. Without explanation the bank recently stopped accepting money transfers sent from abroad to charitable and Islamic associations in Gaza. June 11, 2015, Gaza City, Gaza. The devastation across Gaza can still be seen nearly one year on from the 2014 conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants. United Nations official figures said that the 50 day war left at least 2,189 Palestinians killed, including more than 1,486 civilians, and 11,000 injured. 67 Israeli soldiers and six civilians were killed. Money pledged by the international community six months ago to rebuild Gaza has not materialised leaving many Palestinians impoverished and still suffering. . Photo: Christopher Furlong @christopherfurlong @gettyimages . #ParalelEvrenSavaşBarış 📷

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15. Together vs. Separate

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A two-year-old Honduran asylum seeker cries as her mother is searched and detained near the U.S.-Mexico border on June 12, 2018 in McAllen, Texas. The asylum seekers had rafted across the Rio Grande from Mexico and were detained by U.S. Border Patrol agents before being sent to a processing center for possible separation. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is executing the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy towards undocumented immigrants. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions also said that domestic and gang violence in immigrants' country of origin would no longer qualify them for political asylum status. Honduras is one of the poorest and most violent countries in Central America. The country experienced a coup d'état in 2009 and is one of the most unequal countries in the world, while the poverty rate stood at 64.3% in 2018. Drought and crop failure in the Central American dry corridor and Climate change in Honduras has been a factor in the formation of the caravans. Many communities have become refugees or immigrants for political, religious and economic reasons in throughout human history. And it will continue to be. It is a fact that there will be and will rises mass migrations in the future due to problems caused by war and global warming. According of the UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency), we are now witnessing the highest levels of displacement on record. An unprecedented 70.8 million people around the world have been forced from home. Among them are nearly 25.9 million refugees, over half of whom are under the age of 18. There are also millions of stateless people who have been denied a nationality and access to basic rights such as education, healthcare, employment and freedom of movement. In a world where nearly 1 person is forcibly displaced every two seconds as a result of conflict or persecution with we're live. . Photos: John Moore @jbmoorephoto @gettyimages . #ParalelEvrenSavaşBarış 📷

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14. Carnival vs. War Zone

13. Bullet vs. Flower

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12. Santa vs. Protests

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(L) A migrant caravan walks into the interior of Mexico after crossing the Guatemalan border on October 21, 2018 near Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico The caravan of Central Americans plans to eventually reach the United States. U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to cancel the recent trade deal with Mexico and withhold aid to Central American countries if the caravan isn't stopped before reaching the U.S. Honduras is one of the poorest and most violent countries in Central America. The country experienced a coup d'état in 2009 and is one of the most unequal countries in the world, while the poverty rate stood at 64.3% in 2018. Drought and crop failure in the Central American dry corridor and Climate change in Honduras has been a factor in the formation of the caravans. (R) Thousands of people dressed as Santa Claus running during the annual Santa Claus Christmas race in Madrid, Spain. . Photos: John Moore @jbmoorephoto and Marcos del Mazo @marcos_del_mazo @gettyimages . #ParalelEvrenSavaşBarış 📷

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11. Football Players vs. Criminals

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Young drug traffickers pose for photos holding their guns at a slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on July 11, 2016. Teenage boys openly tote guns as they run in flip-flops through a maze of alleys. Brazil is one of the most violent countries in the world with a national homicide rate of 27.1 per 100,000 inhabitants. A large part of this violence and criminality can be linked to arms and drug trafficking operations by organized crime groups. Brazil is dealing with rising violence, a lot of it related to the illegal drug trade. Most of the victims are young. In 2016 alone, more than 33,000 Brazilian teens and adults under the age of 30 were killed by homicide. . Photo: Felipe Dana @felipedana @apnews . #ParalelEvrenSavaşBarış 📷

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10. Grief vs. Relaxation

9. Love Wall vs. War Wall

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An orphaned boy walks past a wall with drawings depicting rocket-propelled grenade launchers, in Bol, Chad on 13 October, 2018. A humanitarian crisis is underway in the Chad Basin, caused by a complex combination of political conflict and environmental factors. Lake Chad—once one of Africa’s largest lakes and a lifeline to 40 million people—is experiencing massive desertification. As a result of unplanned irrigation, extended drought, deforestation and resource mismanagement, the size of the lake has decreased by 90 percent over the past 60 years. Traditional livelihoods such as fishing have withered, and water shortages are causing conflict between farmers and cattle herders. Jihadist group Boko Haram, which is active in the area, both benefits from the hardship and widespread hunger and contributes to it. The group uses local villages as a recruiting ground, and the protracted conflict has uprooted 2.5 million people, exacerbating food insecurity. . Photo: Marco Gualazzini @marcogualazzini @worldpressphoto . #ParalelEvrenSavaşBarış 📷

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8. Hell on Earth vs. Paradise on Earth

7. Child at School vs. Child Soldier (?)

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Gaza City, Gaza Strip. Palestinian boys raise toy guns in a gesture of defiance. The First Intifada, the first Palestinian uprising against Israel, started in December 1987 and strengthened the Arab population in their determination to fight the occupying Israeli force. In March 1993, Israel closed its border with Gaza, causing a massive rise in unemployment. With more than 800,000 people contained in the Israeli-patrolled, 8 km wide strip of land, bloodshed increased sharply. The violence reached a peak in May, when 30 Palestinians were killed and hundreds injured. The peace agreement signed in Washington D.C. on 13 September 1993 promised limited authority for the Gaza Strip and a withdrawal of the Israeli army. via @worldpressphoto . Photo: Larry Towell @larrysgeneralstore @magnumphotos . #ParalelEvrenSavaşBarış 📷

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6. Ice Cream vs. Bomb Cloud

5. Excess vs. Crowd

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Hands of refugees stretch out as they scramble for donations in the Balukhali camp on September 18, 2017 in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. According the @UNDP, 26 people on Earth own the same wealth as the 3.8 billion who make up the poorest half of humanity. 1 out of 4 urban residents live in slum-like conditions. Children under the age of 18 are half of the world’s 1.3 billion people facing multidimensional poverty. (🇹🇷) 18 Eylül 2017'de Bangladeş, Cox's Bazar'daki Balukhali kampında yapılan bağışları mülteciler kapmak için çırpınıyorlar. @UNDP 'ye göre, Dünya'daki 26 kişinin serveti, insanlığın en fakir yarısını oluşturan 3,8 milyar insanın toplam servetiyle aynı. 4 şehir sakininden 1 tanesi gecekondu benzeri koşullardaki evlerde yaşamakta. Çok boyutlu yoksullukla karşı karşıya olan Dünya'daki 1,3 milyar insanın yarısı, 18 yaşının altındaki çocuklardır. . Photo: Allison Joyce @allisonsarahjoyce @gettyimages . #ParalelEvrenSavaşBarış 📷

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4. Fine Art vs. Comrades

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A Serbian paramilitary couple celebrate the fall of the Croatian city of Vukovar. Fall from 1991. . The Battle of Vukovar was an 87-day siege of Vukovar in eastern Croatia by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), supported by various paramilitary forces from Serbia, between August and November 1991. Vukovar was defended by around 1,800 lightly armed soldiers of the Croatian National Guard (ZNG) and civilian volunteers, against as many as 36,000 JNA soldiers and Serb paramilitaries equipped with heavy armour and artillery. During the battle, shells and rockets were fired into the town at a rate of up to 12,000 a day. At the time, it was the fiercest and most protracted battle seen in Europe since 1945, and Vukovar was the first major European town to be entirely destroyed since the Second World War. When Vukovar fell on 18 November 1991, several hundred soldiers and civilians were massacred by Serb forces and at least 20,000 inhabitants were expelled. Most of Vukovar was ethnically cleansed of its non-Serb population and became part of the self-declared Republic of Serbian Krajina. Several Serb military and political officials, including Milošević, were later indicted and in some cases jailed for war crimes committed during and after the battle. The battle exhausted the JNA and proved a turning point in the Croatian war. A ceasefire was declared a few weeks later. Vukovar remained in Serb hands until 1998, when it was peacefully reintegrated into Croatia with the signing of the Erdut Agreement. It has since been rebuilt but has less than half of its pre-war population and many buildings are still scarred by the battle. Its two principal ethnic communities remain deeply divided and it has not regained its former prosperity. (Source: Wikipedia) . Photo: Ron Haviv @ronhaviv_vii Art Paint: Gustav Klimt – The Kiss (in German Der Kuss) . #ParalelEvrenSavaşBarış 📷

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3. Wasteland vs. Forest

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Men walking on a pipe over a stream near a tannery, in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Almost all of Bangladesh's 200 plus tanneries are concentrated in Hazaribagh, a densely populated, odious neighbourhood on the banks of the Buriganga River. Residents of Hazaribagh's slums complain of illnesses such as fevers, skin diseases, respiratory problems and diarrhoea. They blame the tanneries for polluting the air, water, and soil and therefore causing their afflictions.The lives of the tannery industry's estimated 20,000 workers are harsh with many dying before they turn 50. Everyday these factories discharge thousands of litres of foul-smelling liquid waste into the river. However, with almost one billion USD a year in export sales, the leather industry is one of Bangladesh's most profitable sectors and there has been limited progress in cleaning it up. For 60 years of operations an unrecorded amount of chromium sulphate, lead, organohalogens, lime, hydrogen sulphide, sulphuric acid, formic acid, bleach, dyes and oils have been discharged into the river. We have known for a long time that the climate crisis is threatening our lives badly in every possible way and that it needs to be treated like the emergency it is. Now we need world leaders who believe in science and who should fight to protect our planet for future generations from the dangers of this climate crisis. Educating ourselves on this climate crisis is one of the most important steps in taking action. It’s not yet too late to educate ourselves on the facts of this global climate crisis. Let’s each do our own part from now on, to protect our planet from further destruction. . Photo: GMB Akash @gmbakash . #ParalelEvrenSavaşBarış 📷

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2. History vs. Regular Day

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Associated Press photographer Eddie Adams was on the streets of Saigon on February 1, 1968, two days after the forces of the People’s Army of Vietnam and the Viet Cong set off the Tet offensive and swarmed into dozens of South Vietnamese cities. As Adams photographed the turmoil, he came upon Brigadier General Nguyen Ngoc Loan, chief of the national police, standing alongside ­Nguyen Van Lem, the captain of a terrorist squad who had just killed the family of one of Loan’s friends. Adams thought he was watching the interrogation of a bound prisoner. But as he looked through his viewfinder, Loan calmly raised his .38-caliber pistol and summarily fired a bullet through Lem’s head. After shooting the suspect, the general justified the suddenness of his actions by saying, “If you hesitate, if you didn’t do your duty, the men won’t follow you.” The Tet offensive raged into March. Yet while U.S. forces beat back the communists, press reports of the anarchy convinced Americans that the war was unwinnable. The freezing of the moment of Lem’s death symbolized for many the brutality over there, and the picture’s widespread publication helped galvanize growing sentiment in America about the futility of the fight. “Still photographs are the most powerful weapon in the world.” – Eddie Adams . Photo: Eddie Adams @apnews . #ParalelEvrenSavaşBarış 📷

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1. Girl With a White Headband

These photographs are quite jarring and thought-provoking. You can view more of the artist’s works here.

In the meantime, how did these collages make you feel? Stir something inside you haven’t felt in a while?

Please share your thoughts in the comments!

The post This Artist Makes Interesting Photo Collages of People Who Live Very Different Lives appeared first on UberFacts.