Through Light and Shadow: The Poetic Lens of Melahat Ünel
Some people speak through words. Others, through silence. For Melahat Ünel, photography became the language that bridged both. A mother of two and an early childhood teacher living in Mersin, Turkey, Melahat picked up her camera just three years ago – at a time when life felt heavy and the roles she carried every day began to blur. Photography wasn’t just a hobby, it was a lifeline. A quiet space carved out of chaos, where she could pause, breathe, and begin to rediscover herself.
“I was overwhelmed,” she says, “and photography gave me a space to reflect. To express things I didn’t always have words for.”
“Where the Quiet Things Live”
Melahat’s photographs rarely shout. Instead, they ask you to lean in – to notice the subtleties in light, shadow, reflection, and gesture. A woman turning her head just so. A window casting long, sharp lines across a wall. These are the moments that stop her, that pull her in. Everyday life, captured with tenderness and precision, becomes something else under her gaze: not just seen, but felt.
What inspires her is simple, yet profound: beauty, quiet, truth. The soft poetry of the mundane. The emotional weight carried by women in their silence. “I want to reflect the inner worlds and struggles of women,” Melahat explains. “To give voice to what often remains unspoken.” Her work doesn’t try to impress – it tries to connect. And that’s exactly what makes it so moving.
What inspires her is simple, yet profound: beauty, quiet, truth. The soft poetry of the mundane. The emotional weight carried by women in their silence. “I want to reflect the inner worlds and struggles of women,” Melahat explains. “To give voice to what often remains unspoken.” Her work doesn’t try to impress – it tries to connect. And that’s exactly what makes it so moving.
“A Story in Every Frame”
For Melahat, storytelling isn’t a layer added after the image is taken – it’s built into the frame itself. Every photograph is rooted in feeling. Sometimes it comforts. Sometimes it confronts. But always, it reveals.
She speaks of “silent screams” and invisible emotions made visible through her lens. And you can see it – whether it’s a sliver of shadow falling across a figure, or a single gesture caught in a fleeting second. There’s something beneath the surface of her images, something stirring and true.
“Without a story,” she says, “a photo feels incomplete.”
“The Mirror in the Lens”
Looking back at her images is like leafing through a visual journal. Each one is a timestamp, reflecting who she was at that particular moment. “Some photographs offer comfort,” she says. “Others bring confrontation. But they all reflect a part of me.”
In her own quiet way, Melahat uses photography not only to see others – but to see herself. Through light and shadow, she reconnects with all the versions of who she is: the mother, the teacher, the child, the woman. Her camera doesn’t just document the world – it reminds her she belongs to it.
We’re proud to feature Melahat Ünel’s work in Rare Storyteller – a collection of photographs that speak softly, but carry the strength of stories long waiting to be told.
The pictures and perspectives expressed above are those of the author(s) alone and do not represent the views of Rare Storyteller or its team.
to the world.