24 October— Monday

Went to İstanbul to spend a week with my family.
Also visited the location for a film I was supposed to make in March 2020,
—which is now postponed indefinitely.

12 October — Wednesday

Pei-Chi Lee for Marie Claire Taiwan

“BODY TALK”

Pei-Chi was one of the five female artists featured in Marie Claire Taiwan to present a work around ‘Body’ through their chosen art form.

We’ve collaborated on these series of images to explore ‘how culture and infrastructure shape our behaviour and body language’, based on her recent installation with the pieces of fabrics she designed.

Published in Marie Claire October Issue - Special Report

 

1 October — Saturday

shot & edited by CAN KÖROĞLU
model YUDAI TATEISHI
photographer CHENG YEN YU
producer YI-HSUAN YU
production assistants PADDY ALLEN, Shaonan Xu
music by CAN KÖROĞLU

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

30 September — Friday

Waiting for my residence permit card to be delivered - signature required.

25 September — Sunday

Received my visa today after six months waiting.

20 September — Tuesday

 
 

Designed a poster for Hannah Owen’s beautiful film.

17 September — Saturday

Pei-Chi Lee, after a shoot

 

16 September — Friday

Joana invited me for a dinner, a collaboration between
no alteration, Heal Goblin and Fenella Bremerton

26 August — Friday

 
 

We shot this film in October 2020.
The past two years haven’t been easy for many of us, and I took my share as well.
After a lot of ups and downs, and a good amount of in-betweens, today I’ve locked it and sent to mix and grade. Can’t wait to share some clips from it soon.

 

13 August — Tuesday

It’s around 35 degrees today. A friend of mine wants to change his shirt before going out at night, so I have to wait downstairs for 10 minutes. There is a grocery store, which makes me realize how much I need something sweet.

The grocery store is quite a small place and there aren’t a lot of options: Snickers, Twix, Bueno - which I think are all too aggresive for the weather. Then there is Cadbury, Toblerone and Milky Way - really don’’t feel like any. It’s way too hot.

I take some time, so I let the next person pass. He buys a coke as I keep looking at the options, going through one package to the other. Toblerone, Milky way, Cadbury, Bounty…Bounty. Do I want a Bounty? It has coconut. Also it has two pieces in a package. Let me think. Snickers, Twix… Cadbury… Bounty! Yes, I think… Yes. Bounty it is.

I put it on the counter.
- Cash or card?
Asks the cashier.
- Card.
- £2 minimum.
- How much is a Bounty?
- £0.80.
- Ah ok.

I have a look at the rest of the chocolate bars and to the person behind me who has a black helmet, a very light brown t-shirt and a belly, I say:

“Go ahead man, I need to decide what else I should get.”

I really don’t want to get any more chocolate.

In the meantime the man with the helmet puts a cold can of RedBull on the counter.

- Cash or card?
Asks the cashier.
- Card.
- £2 minimum.
- How much is a RedBull?
- £1.35.

I wait for a second and say “I’ll get that for you.” But the man acts even faster, pulls the Bounty out of my hand and quickly taps his card on the card machine and gives me the Bounty, proudly, like a superhero.

I thank Helmet Man generously. “Thank you Helmet Man. I will be forever grateful for your kind gesture.”

We both leave the grocery store. It’s so hot outside. He goes right, towards his delivery scooter, I go left towards my friend’s door. I open the Bounty as fast as I can and eat the first piece in two bites. It’s exactly what I needed. I look up and see the man sitting on his scooter drinking the RedBull in one go. We look at each other for a second, and finish what we have.

Helmet Man starts his scooter and passes in front of me. We both smile and wave - I mean he has a helmet so I hope he smiles too.

Now I’m alone, still waiting for my friend. The street is empty. The euphoria of the interaction fades. The trees don’t move, not a single leaf, neither my friend’s door. I feel happy about this exchange but can’t help but thinking why he had to take the Bounty out of my hand and put it on the counter, instead of just paying for it.


I start feeling like having another Bounty.

20 August— Saturday

A letter* I wrote on a boomerang airplane

 
 
* Dear plane, fly as far as you can, as high as you want, as fast as the wind, but come back to me, even if I’m not there anymore.

31 July — Monday

 

Two polaroids by Gabriela Nemésio Nobre

 

10 August — Wednesday

My dog has excellent taste.

 
 

JUNE TWO THOUSAND TWENTY-THREE

JUNE TWO THOUSAND TWENTY-THREE

8 July — Friday

Developed some rolls from the past few months.

24 June — Friday

Gabriela made me a surprise and got us tickets for the Wim Wenders talk in Curzon.
After the Q&A we spent an hour together in the bar area while having popcorn. Gabriela had sweet popcorn and I had salty, so Wim Wenders had a bit of hers and then a bit of mine. I have to say that it was a bit disgusting that he put his hand in our popcorns, but at least I have a nice memory.

We tried to talk a little bit about how bad the film industry is in general, but it just depressed me. I also told him about the interview I’ve made with his cinematographer Agnès Godard but he didn’t seem to care that much. He is 76 years old. They always say “Never meet your heroes”, which I don’t think is true. I think it should be “Meet your heroes, but don’t talk about heroism.”

7 June — Tuesday

A sequence from a test shoot I did for Yuyi

31 May — Tuesday

Today is my 31st birthday.

18 May — Wednesday

Today I had my visa extension application. I’ve submitted my documents and now will wait for about 6 months to get an answer. In the meantime, I’m not allowed to leave the UK.

The officer who received my documents at the application centre said that it’s great that I uploaded everything on the website, because the scanner doesn’t work properly. “We would have a lot of problems.”

She was also quite impressed with my fingerprints. “I’ve never seen anyone with fingerprints like this.” she said. “So precise, so perfect.”

I was quite proud. It’s true that I’m pretty good at giving fingerprints. I was told before, multiple times.

However, as she was looking at her screen, checking my fingerprints one last time, she noticed that I had a scar on my right middle finger. She took out a form, and told me we need to fill out the form and specify that I have a scar on my finger, and that it’s not perfect.

The form was straightforward. It already has all the fingers written out, as apparently this kind of imperfection was something very common.

But now she needed to scan the form.