Jülide Yaşar Soncu grew up in France but moved to Istanbul and started a small business. “I didn’t want to live in a country that doesn’t give equality of chance,” Jülide recalls of what began motivating her to look beyond France.

Haydar Zorlu reached the top in Germany as an actor but decided to move to Istanbul to pursue his creative freedom.



“I was, and I am, part of two countries. In my case there is no difference and no border between both. I thought it was normal until I was about thirty-five,” he says with a laugh.

For my latest profile from Sweden we turn to an Iranian born member of Parliament to broaden our perspective on the immigrant experience.

You can read the first profile I’ve written about Swedes of Turkish descent on Forbes.com!



Mikail was born in Sweden yet still doesn't feel Swedish.

Starting today you can see what I’ve been up to over the past few months. Check out Forbes.com and start reading my latest series exploring the lives of Europeans of Turkish descent as they try to find a place in Europe’s social fabric.

If you are a little more visually oriented check out the photo essay and multimedia piece I published on The Mantle about Pentecostalism's spread here in Europe.

Stockholm

For those of you who love to read please check out my article about the spread of Pentecostalism in Europe which was published in the Spring Issue of World Policy Journal.



It is the culmination of a year's worth of explorations and I hope you enjoy it!

Stockholm



Well here I am in Scandinavia for the first time! I'll be around for about a month exploring Sweden and I look forward to keeping you posted on what I discover!

I’m excited to announce my selection as an Immigration Reporting Fellow by the French American Foundation. For my project I’ll be traveling to Sweden on Sunday for a month to look at the lives of second generation immigrants of Turkish decent and in September I will be based in Istanbul for two months interviewing and photographing those who have migrated to Turkey. It should be an exciting few months so expect several updates! If you have any tips for Stockholm or Istanbul please let me know.

Kiev, Ukraine

Well here I am, as far east as I have ever come for this project! The next three weeks should be interesting as I explore the spread of Pentecostalism here in Ukraine, stay tuned for images...

Barcelona

I hope you can join me tonight at the Alex Telese Gallery for the opening of my first solo show in Spain!

I hope you can join me at the opening of my first solo exhibition in Barcelona on June 21st at 19:00 at Galería Alex Telese located at C/ De la Palla, 11, 08002 Barcelona, Spain.



It also happens to be the summer solstice so we are sure to have a great time!

London

This week images from The Europeans were featured on the New York Times Lens Blog. Needless to say I’m pretty excited that my work is reaching a larger audience. I’ve been working on this project for the past seven years and there have been many times where I felt I was toiling in obscurity to say the least. Getting a little recognition every now and then feels good.

I have a show coming up in Barcelona in June! Here's a sneak peek...

In other news I've joined the World Policy Institute as a Project Leader!



Some might think it odd that a photojournalist like myself has joined a think tank but I've always been interested in photography as a vehicle to drive discussion, not simply transmit information. If you missed it here's a link to an article I wrote and photographed for World Policy Journal about the asylum system in Austria