An Interview with Turkish artist Mustafa Nazif Duran

MIXED MEDIA INSPIRATION: MEET DURAN, A CALLIGRAPHER, DESIGNER, PHOTOGRAPHER, AND POET

Mustafa Nazif Duran studied traditional Islamic calligraphy at a very young age and is now using it to create his own unique forms and compositions. He has worked as an art director for several advertising agencies and for many newspapers (Unesco Courier, Sabah, Hürriyet, Hergün, Sonsöz, 2023 Magazine, DigitalLife Magazine, Otomoto Magazine and Rent-a-car Magazine). Besides calligraphy and graphic design, his interests also include photography, video, and sound editing. He draws his inspiration from the every-day urban scenes in Istanbul.

You’re a talented artist with very diverse artistic interests. Can you tell us more about that?
I have been a calligrapher since an early age and I am a graphic designer by profession. I work as an Art Director for many advertising agencies, magazines and newspapers. I also freelance at the same time since I don’t want to devote all my time to the same corporation. As for my photography and my poetry, they are a reflection of the inspiration I find all around me.

Your calligraphy is done in a free style, without much ornamentation. How do you approach calligraphy and what philosophy is behind it?
I learned to write Islamic calligraphy at young age at the madrasa. I write from four to ten lines of the Qur’an every day hoping to finish it in the next two years. Now I’m trying, besides writing in traditional calligraphy styles, to use my knowledge by making free compositions. My style is different from classical calligraphers and I was recently invited to Syria as a Turkish calligrapher to present my style. I was practicing my art in the presence of five hundred people in an event that took place over four days. The public would ask me to write their name or anything else and I would write combining letters in different shapes. One day, I had a man coming to me with a request to make his name in a form of rhinoceros, since he had formed an organization to protect them. Being a designer influences my calligraphy work. I am not the one who invented writing calligraphy in different shapes, like birds or rhinos. I am just following the footsteps of the great Ottoman calligraphers.

The rest of the article you can read in the magazine.