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.com 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.