C. M. Kosemen
Artist and Researcher
***
Books
***
Bibliography
Speculative biology and paleontology:
2006 All Tomorrows: A Billion Year Chronicle of the Myriad Species and Mixed Fortunes of Man
2012 All Yesterdays: Unique and Speculative Views of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals, with John Conway and Darren Naish
2013 All Your Yesterdays: Extraordinary Visions of Extinct Life by a New Generation of Palaeoartists (free e-book)
2013 Cryptozoologicon: The Biology, Evolution, and Mythology of Hidden Animals, with John Conway and Darren Naish
Culture and history in Turkey:
2013 Nişanyan House, a Photographic Essay
2014 Osman Hasan and the Tombstone Photographs of the Dönmes
2018 The Bodrum Jewish Cemetery
2018 The Disappearing City: Hand-Painted Apartment Signs and Architectural Details from 20th-Century Istanbul
2018 A Karakaş Speaks: Interviews with a Member of Turkey's Crypto-Judaic "Dönme" Sect
2019 Memories and Stories of Bodrum's Jewish Community
2019 Hatıratlarda Türkiye Yahudileri, with Rıfat N. Bali
2020 Memoirs of an Istanbul Psychiatrist, with Henri Griladze
2021
Forests of the Afterlife: Folk Art and Symbolism in Village Cemeteries of Turkey's Bodrum-Milas Peninsula
Art collections:
2016 Tangent Worlds: From the Sketchbooks of C. M. Kosemen (free e-book)
2019 Alternate Life: From the Online Sketchbooks of C. M. Kosemen (free e-book)
2020 Decade: Surreal Artworks by C. M. Kosemen (free e-book)
***
Documentation
ISNI
VIAF
WorldCat
Deutschen Nationalbibliothek
National Library of Israel Names and Subjects Authority
Library of Congress
***
Titles
Title:
Forests of the Afterlife: Folk Art and Symbolism in Forest Cemeteries of Turkey's Bodrum-Milas Peninsula
Publisher: Ege Yayınları / Zero Books
Publication Date: December 2021
ISBN: 978-605-7673-96-1
Role: Author, Editor, Photographer, Designer
Worked with: Ahmet Boratav (Managing Editor)
Turkey’s funerary folk art is both intriguing and under-studied. This book documents hundreds of tree-themed works from cemeteries in the Bodrum-Milas peninsula, alongside an overview of Turkish funerary art, its categories and symbols, and local tree-related folklore.
***
Title:
Memoirs of an Istanbul Psychiatrist
Publisher: Libra Books
Publication Date: June 2020
ISBN: 978-625-7900-16-4
Role: Author, Editor, Translator, Photographer, Designer
Worked with: Henri Griladze (speaker), Rifat N. Bali (Managing Editor)
Memoirs of an Istanbul Psychiatrist presents the autobiography of Dr. Henri Griladze (b. 1938), one of Turkey’s pioneering neuro-psychiatrists.
Beginning with his father’s emigration from Georgia to Turkey in the early 20th century, the book traces Dr. Griladze’s childhood in Bağlarbaşı, his education, decades in psychiatric hospitals, pioneering research on sleep and psychometrics, encounters with nationalists and journalists, and his private clinic since 1974. Illustrated with photos and detailed footnotes, it appeals to scholars of Turkish medical and psychiatric history, Bağlarbaşı’s past, and memoir enthusiasts.
***
Title:
Hatıratlarda Türkiye Yahudileri (Turkish Jews in Turkish Memoirs)
Publisher: Libra Books
Publication Date: December 2019
ISBN: 605-7884-732
Role: Editor, Researcher
Worked with: Rifat N. Bali (Managing Editor)
Memoirs are a popular book genre in Turkey. Hatıratlarda Türkiye Yahudileri is a compilation of excerpts from memoirs by Turkish citizens that capture portraits, or details from the lives of Turkish Jews. In Turkish, will be translated into English in the future.
***
Title:
Memories and Stories of Bodrum's Jewish Community
Publisher: Libra Books
Publication Date: May 2019
ISBN: 978-605-7884-17-6
Role: Author, Photographer
Worked with: Rifat N. Bali (Managing Editor)
Known today as a vacation spot, Bodrum was once home to a small but influential Jewish community that thrived until the mid-20th century. Memories and Stories of Bodrum's Jewish Community offers the first comprehensive overview of this little-known Sephardic group, drawing on historic sources and interviews. It recounts ancient settlements, warm ties between Turks and Jews, wartime struggles, near-escapes, and figures like astrophysicist Janet Akyüz Mattei and historian Abraham Galante. Illustrated with photographs and annotated footnotes, the book also includes a tour of Judaic sites around Bodrum.
***
Title:
Alternate Life: From the Online Sketchbooks of C. M. Kosemen
Art book - self published
Role: Author, Artist, Designer
This volume contains a multitude of my sketches, published in online “sketchbooks” between March 2013 and March 2019. Alien creatures, fossil animals, parallel evolution, and spirit visions constitute the main themes. Simple explanations are provided throughout. Alternate Life is a free, self-published gift to my friends and followers.
***
Title:
Decade: Surreal Artworks by C. M. Kosemen
Art book - self published
Role: Artist, Author, Designer
This is a complete catalogue of surreal artworks that I painted between 2010 and 2020. Decade is a self-published gift to my friends and followers, and contains reproductions of hundreds of acrylic, pencil, and silkscreen works.
***
Title:
A Karakaş Speaks: Interviews with a Member of Turkey’s Crypto-Judaic “Dönme” Community
Publisher: Libra Books
Publication Date: August 2018
ISBN: 978-605-2380-58-1
Role: Author, Translator, Designer
Worked with: Rifat N. Bali (Managing Editor)
Since the late 20th century, interest in the crypto-Judaic group known as the Dönme has intensified, yet narratives from members remain rare. A Karakaş Speaks addresses this gap through interviews with a member of the Karakaş group, one of the three main Dönme sects. Featuring introductory chapters on Dönme history, annotated footnotes, and unpublished religious documents, calendars, and genealogies, the book offers a rare insider perspective.
***
Title:
The Disappearing City: Hand-painted Apartment Signs and Architectural Details from 20th-Century Istanbul
Publisher: Libra Books
Publication Date: May 2018
ISBN: 978-605-2380-39-0
Role: Author, Photographer, Translator, Designer
Worked with: Rifat N. Bali (Managing Editor)
From the early 1900s to the 1970s, Istanbul’s apartment buildings bore hand-painted names—after animals, plants, fruits, even feelings—gracing entrances with elegant, idiosyncratic signs. Now threatened by urban renewal, these overlooked artworks are preserved in this landmark two-volume study with over 5,000 photographs. This book showcases more than three thousand signs from historic districts, alongside images of vernacular architecture and urban details. By documenting artisans like M. Haytayan, A. Levi, and G. Vrioni, the book also highlights the Armenian, Jewish, and Greek craftsmen who once shaped Istanbul’s streetscape—a lasting resource for architects, designers, historians, and urbanists.
In two volumes; 615 and 497 pages; 5000+ colour photographs.
***
Title:
The Bodrum Jewish Cemetery
Publisher: Libra Books
Publication Date: January 2017
ISBN: 978-605-9022-90-3
Role: Author (Introduction Essay) Photographer, Translator, Editor, Designer
Worked with: Siren Bora (Author) Rifat N. Bali (Managing Editor)
Today known mainly as a holiday destination, the Aegean town of Bodrum also hosted a small but important Jewish community in its past. The Bodrum Jewish Cemetery catalogues the small, neglected cemetery that preserves the only remaining physical traces of this community, with detailed images of all surviving tombstones in the Bodrum Jewish Cemetery, transcriptions and translations of every legible epitaph, alongside useful background information on the history of Bodrum’s Jews.
***
Title:
Tangent Worlds: From the Sketchbooks of C. M. Kosemen
Art book - self published
Publication Date: May 2016
Role: Author, Artist, Designer
A collection of various sketches from my sketchbooks; with hundreds of images and descriptions of demons, alien creatures, palaeoart and products of speculative evolution; arranged as a fictional “dream travelogue”. Tangent Worlds is a self-published gift to my friends and followers; and a complimentary volume to my sketchbook page.
***
Title:
Osman Hasan and the Tombstone Photographs of the Dönmes
Publisher: Libra Books
Publication Date: August 2014
ISBN: 978-6054326976
Role: Writer, Photographer, Researcher, Designer
Worked with: Rifat N. Bali (Managing Editor)
Osman Hasan and the Tombstone Photographs of the Dönmes surveys the unique portrait-bearing tombstones of Istanbul’s Dönme community. Descended from crypto-Jews of Salonica, the Dönme blended Sufi, Kabbalistic, and local traditions while outwardly appearing Muslim. In their final expression of cultural autonomy, the Dönme community in Istanbul buried their dead in distinctive graves marked with portraits—most created by Dönme artist Osman Hasan.
This book documents and interprets these tombs, their symbols, and designs, preserving a fading legacy. Academically acclaimed, Osman Hasan and the Tombstone Photographs of the Dönmes was purchased by leading research libraries, presented in international academic talks, and was awarded the 2016 Eduard Duckesz Prize for Jewish Studies.
***
Title:
Cryptozoologicon: The Biology, Evolution, and Mythology of Hidden Animals
Publisher: Irregular Books
Publication Date: December 2013
ISBN: 978-1291621532
Role: Illustrator, Editor
Worked with: John Conway (Illustrator) Darren Naish (Author)
The Cryptozoologicon is a celebration of the myths, legends, evolution and biology of cryptids; “hidden animals” such as the bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster, the Yeti; as well as more obscure beasts such as the Buru, the Mbielu-Mbielu-Mbielu and the Waitoreke.
Always skeptical, but willing to indulge in speculative fun, Cryptozoologicon aims to provide a new approach to cryptozoology as quasi-biological folklore.
***
Title:
All Your Yesterdays: Extraordinary Visions of Extinct Life by a New Generation of Palaeoartists
Publisher: Irregular Books
Publication Date: March 2013
Role: Writer, Editor
Worked with: John Conway (Illustrator) Darren Naish (Introduction)
A sequel to All Yesterdays, this book is based on the entries we received for the “All Your Yesterdays“ art contest of 2013, where we asked artists around the world to illustrate their own speculative but plausible ideas about dinosaurs and other extinct animals. With superb artwork and exciting ideas from some of the best new talents in the field of palaeontological art, All Your Yesterdays dwells further into the world of rational speculation in palaeontology with in-depth explanations and scientific references about each artwork.
All Your Yesterdays was published as a free e-book.
***
Title:
All Yesterdays: Unique and Speculative Views of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals
Publisher: Irregular Books
Publication Date: December 2012
ISBN: 978-1291177121
Role: Writer, Editor, Illustrator, Designer
Worked with: John Conway (Illustrator, Editor) Darren Naish (Introduction)
All Yesterdays addresses the way we picture dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals. Instead of picturing them as emaciated, bare-skinned, ultraviolent monsters; it aims to depict dinosaurs as living, breathing, “regular” organisms related to present-day birds. The book also features a section of fantastic reconstructions, where we purposefully illustrated present-day animals with the errors seen in dinosaur art today. All Yesterdays has become a bestseller, and has won a Global Ebook Prize in the Science category.
***
Title:
All Tomorrows: The Myriad Species and Mixed Fortunes of Man
Online Publication Date: October 2006
Print Publication: 2025
Publisher: Wilton Square Books
Role: Author, Illustrator
All Tomorrows follows humanity as our species spreads to the stars; encounters a mysterious, hostile race; and is scattered across thousands of worlds as animal-like, post-human beings. Will they be able to re-gain sentience, and claim a common sense of humanity again? In the summer of 2021 All Tomorrows was rediscovered thanks to a popular video dramatisation on Youtube, and has since then enjoyed a surge in popularity - which directly led to its global release as a physical book.
***
***
Copyright laws protect all content associated with this site.
Contact c.m.kosemen@gmail.com for inquiries.
***