Çiğdem Yüksel: If Only You Knew

A tender homage to the first generation of Turkish women migrating to the Netherlands

＂If only you knew...＂ This is how many women began their stories when photographer Çigdem Yüksel (born 1989) visited them. They belong to the same demographic and generation as her grandmother: leaving Türkiye to forge a new life in the Netherlands. In 1979, photographer Bertien van Manen took portraits of several of these women as part of the series Women as Guests. Now, in the 2020s, Yüksel has revisited some of these subjects and documented their stories not just through portraits, but also through their oral histories, letters and family albums. This more holistic approach gives way to a broader narrative of immigrant women navigating unfamiliar terrain while learning a new language and caring for their families. Now in their seventies and eighties, these women who formed the first generation of Turkish women migrants to the Netherlands have the chance to embed their stories within Dutch history.