Umut Kebabci – Whirling Dervishes

Istanbul-based photographer Umut Kebabci showcases his latest series, Whirling Dervishes. Capturing the essence of Sufi whirling, especially in his motion shots, Kebabci explains its origins and its current practice among the Dervishes of the Mevlevi order: “It is a symbolic ritual through which dervishes (also called semazens) aim to reach the ‘perfect.’ The aim is to abandon one’s nafs, egos or personal desires, by listening to God and the music (hence the term sema), thinking about God and whirling which has been compared to the orbiting of the planets in the Solar System around the sun.”