Serdar Özsoy

Serdar Özsoy is an independent Turkish photojournalist with more than 25 years of professional experience documenting social issues, political events and humanitarian crises. Born in 1976 in Zonguldak, Turkey, he studied Photography at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University before beginning his professional career in 1998 as a staff photojournalist at Cumhuriyet newspaper. During his years at Cumhuriyet (1998–2004), he documented major national events including earthquakes, political violence and social movements, developing a field-based and human-centered visual approach. In 2004, Özsoy joined Milliyet newspaper, one of Turkey’s leading national dailies, where he worked as a staff photojournalist for a decade (2004–2014). Throughout this period, he covered breaking news, political developments and social conflicts across the country, contributing extensively to national news coverage during a transformative era in Turkey’s recent history. Since 2014, he has been working as an independent freelance photojournalist, focusing on long-term documentary projects and underreported social issues. His work explores themes such as disaster recovery, social inequality and human resilience, with a particular emphasis on communities affected by crises. His photographs have been distributed internationally and published by global media outlets, reaching a wide audience beyond Turkey. Among his selected projects are the Turkey–Syria Earthquakes (2023), the Muğla Wildfires (2021), Media4Democracy documentary projects, the European Youth Olympic Winter Festival (2015) and the Deaflympics in Samsun (2017). Throughout his career, he has also covered significant assignments including the 1999 Marmara Earthquake, the assassination of Ahmet Taner Kışlalı (1999), the Şemdinli Bombing (2005), the Reyhanlı Bombing (2013) and the Gezi Protests (2013). Özsoy’s work has been recognized with several awards, including the Musa Anter Photojournalism Award (2000), the Turkish Journalists Association Award (2006), the Abdi İpekçi Peace Award (2006), and he was named a finalist at Pictures of the Year International in 2025. In addition to his independent practice, he has been an ongoing freelance contributor to Getty Images.