Ahmet Polat is a Turkish-Dutch photographer living in Istanbul & Holland. After graduating from St. Joost Academy in Breda, 2000 he started exhibiting his work in Turkey and the Netherlands. Among his solo exhibitions are, "Silence in Kayapinar" (Dorts Museum, Netherlands, 2001), "Home Is Where I Left My Dreams" (Karsi Sanat Gallery, Istanbul, 2003; Resim Heykel Museum, Ankara, Turkey), "Old Country, New Country" (Photo Museum The Hague, Netherlands, 2004), “Neither Here nor There” (Breda Photo Biennial, 2008), "Kemal's Dream" (FOAM, Amsterdam, 2010, DEPO, Istanbul, 2012).
At x-ist he had three solo shows titled "Submitted to Change" (2005), "Invitation Only" (2006), "The Other Kemal" (2014) in addition to a public space installation "Where Are You?" in 2007. Polat has received the "Young Photographer" award in the 22nd Infinity Awards given by one of the most important photography institutions of the world, ICP (International Center of Photography in New York). The artist also participated in several international group shows like "Old Country, New Country" (Stroom, The Netherlands, 2005), "Genç Açilim" (Pera Museum, Istanbul, 2005), "Fluorescent Adolescent" (7th International Biennial of Photography, Netherlands, 2010), "In what language shall I tell you my story?" (Stedelijk Schiedam, Netherlands, 2012), "Modern Turkey" (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 2012), "Istanbul Modern - Bahrain" (Bahrain National Museum, Bahrain, 2013), "On the Move" (Stedelijk Amsterdam, 2014) and "x-tension" (Office 4200, Bursa, 2015).
Polat also takes commercial and fashion photographs for several international magazines such as French and Turkish Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, New York Times, Paris Match, Marie Claire, Quest and Vice. Among the art fairs Polat participated are Art-Rotterdam, Contemporary Istanbul 07, 12, 13, 14 & 15, UNSEEN Amsterdam 2012 and ArtInternational 2013 & 2014.
The book of his latest work "Kemal's Dream" has been launched in the Unseen Photography Fair, Amsterdam in 2012. In 2013, Polat was nominated for the long list of Dutch Doc Award, the largest Dutch photography prize, with his two different projects, "Kemal's Dream" and "Dark Moon". In 2015, Polat has received "Ambassador of Dutch Photography" title by FOTOWEEK Festival. The photo series Polat took for the festival is presented during FOTOWEEK (FOTODOK, Netherlands, 2015).
He is currently working on an exhibition called "Imagine Istanbul", In Palais des Baux Art in Brussels.