Moved by Olpak’s quest, Ahmet Polat offered to help him spread the word through the medium he knew best: photography. Throughout the years, the Society has been raising awareness about this past while also fostering connections between the Afro-Turkish living in the outskirts of Izmir. Image-making has played a key role in this process. Outdoor portrait workshops have attracted and engaged young Turkish whereas pop-up exhibitions have helped assemble a living archive. The connection to the photographic world has also helped the Society expand its scope and establish collaborations with other cultural organisations in Europe, including Foam.

For the first edition of the visual podcast The Coffee Reading, Studio Polat and Foam invited three members from the Africans' Culture and Solidarity Society in Izmir to share their story through the ritual act of drinking and reading Turkish coffee. Their conversation is part of the Dark Moon photographic project that featured at Gallery Mercatorplein in 2022. This project is the result of the long-term collaboration between Studio Polat and the Society and sheds light on this underexposed history.

In this episode, the members talk about how the African’s Culture and Solidarity Society came to shape and the legacy it wishes to leave behind for future generations.