Lèo - U.Yigit Ekiz

U.Yiğit Ekiz (Léo) was born in Istanbul in 1988. He attended 12 scholastic years like everyone suppose to do. he finished High School in 2005. when he was 5 years old he was interesting on sports. later on,in the age of 15 he started being interested on arts and especially on photography and on drawing. after finishing the High School he decided to study art and he wanted to enter in Mimar Sinan, the University of Fine Art, which is the best and the most famous university for art in Turkey

The entrance in this University demands a lot of skills. and the competition to enter is very big. there are a lot of students who are applying but the number of them that can be accepted is very small. For photography there are just 10 places per year, so we can see that it is not very easy and possible for someone to enter there.

After all, he decided to attend drawing lessons with a Turkish painter, as he did. at the same time he was studying about the art of photography and in general the photography entered in his life. something else that made him loving photography, was the accidental meeting that he had with Elio Montanari on February 2006 in the central street of Istanbul at 5 o'clock in the morning. Elio Montanari is a professor of architecture and photography. Montanari suggested Léo to be his personal assistant for the project that he had to do about the "Border of the city of Istanbul". Léo accepted Montanari's offer, so they started co-operating and it kept for 6 months. so, we can say that Léo's most important moments in his artistic life started from the second that he met Montanari. they started by taking photographs of the wall and then on July 2006 they started the long trip in the East Anatolia, which took 1 month, for the second project which was called "Diyarbakiristanbul". more specific, the second project was like a documentary. in those days, Léo, created his first portfolio.

On August 2006 he went to give the exams for the university but unfortunately he failed. his portfolio was amazing and he got the highest grade,but the drawing that he did was not enough for this university. After this failing, Lèo got offended ad he decided that he should stop drawing. And this is what he did. This does not mean that he stopped the communication that he had until this time with art. He kept on taking pictures by himself and for himself and srudying about theory and professionalism on photography. After all, ke finally kept on working on graphic design by becoming the graphic designer oin the mose important Turkisk company called "PLATO".

After this year, on August of 2007 he had another accidental meeting with Ara Azad, a Lebanese painter. Ara Azad is a professor of Art in the UNivesrity of Massachusetts. He became one of the most important people in Lèo's life and career. He made Lèo to change his motivation and his ideas, he made him change his mind about the university of Istanbul and his abilities, so Lèo decided to give again exams in order to enter the university. This time the exams that he gave were exams in order to study photography which started being his passion. Even if it was his second time that he gave exams in order to enter in two different subjects, he failled it again, beacause of the small number of students that they accept each year as i already mentioned in the beggining.

After this, he did not leave his dream about photography to go away and about graphic design. He kept on working in the Turkish company "Plato Film Production Co." from Septemper 2007 until next August when he again gave exams in order to enter the university. This time it was a success. He managed to enter the university, even if he spent his night before the exam just by drinking and smoking and not sleeping at all. The name of the exam that he passed was "Sensation of visual art". This was on September of 2008.

On October of 2008 he suddenly decided that he is not going to attend the University of Fine Art, but he is going to apply, for a university in Italy, in the peace program. He prepared his application and E. Montenary added some more commentarries on the experience that they had together and the skill that Lèo has on photography and general on Graphic. So now Lèo is studying photography in Udine and he is planning on study Cinema in Gorizia for the next year and in his future. This is on what he is interesting now.

Important people in Lèo's life, except E. Montenary and Ara Azad, the people that i already refered to, was him Mother. His mother is the person in his life that inspired him on art. She is interesting on art and more specific on drawing. This is the first person from whom he learned about art and drawing. So i can say that she is the base on what Lèo is now. The begging of his immagination and of what he is now. She is the one who supported him in all those period of his life. She was next to him all the time, the time that he failled the exam and the time that he passed it. IN bad and good times in his life. Even now, despite the bid distance between them, she is the one who help him and supports him the most.