My ‘Yearly Journals’ are basically a series where, at the end of each year, I write down my goals for the coming year and review what I accomplished in the past one. I started this series in 2017, meaning at the end of 2016, beginning of 2017. In 2023, I wrote one on my birthday. In 2024, I wrote another one, but in a format that was a bit outside the usual. And this year, I ended up writing it four months after the new year had already begun. Over the last three years, the series has been a bit inconsistent, but I’m still continuing with it. In fact, it’s also tied to me putting my website burakbayram.me in better order.

As for the meaning of the visuals, I wanted this series to have a theme as well. For the 2017 entry, I asked AI to create it with an Ottoman Empire theme. After that, I applied the theme of a different empire or civilization to each year. Overall, I can say I liked all of them. I enjoy different approaches. I also write down the inspiration source for each theme on top of the image. The theme of the ‘Yearly Journals’ header above, for example, is The Great Seljuk Empire.

Ottoman Empire

British Empire

Achaemenid Empire

Maya Civilization

Ancient Egypt

Empire of Japan

Russian Empire

Qing Dynasty

Spanish Empire