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Istanbul Diaries 1974-1977

Pentax Spotmatic and Nikon F analog cameras.

When I photographed the streets of Istanbul between 1974 and 1977, the city had a very different face from the one we know today. Eminonu in particular was not only a transportation hub, but also one of the centers of everyday commerce and street life. Vendors selling fish and bread from boats, small boats carrying passengers between Emin�n� and Karak�y, ferries and the large passenger ships of the period were all natural parts of life along the waterfront. Most of the time, I wandered through the city without looking for a particular subject, simply photographing the everyday life I encountered. I took these photographs with my Pentax Spotmatic and, from 1976 onward, my Nikon F film cameras. Walking through Istanbul with a camera taught me to see the city differently. I was drawn to the ways people worked, the activity along the waterfront, street vendors, boats and crowds. At the same time, centuries-old landmarks such as the Anatolian and Rumeli Fortresses seemed to belong to another layer of time, standing against a city that was already beginning to change rapidly. These were also years of intense social and political change in Turkey. After a long interruption, the return of large public May Day celebrations became one of the events that transformed Istanbul's streets and squares. For me, these were not simply photographs of a political demonstration; they were also records of the people, the public spaces and the social atmosphere of the period. Looking at these photographs almost half a century later, I can see how profoundly not only Istanbul's buildings, but also its everyday life has changed. Some of the occupations, forms of transportation and street customs seen in these images have disappeared. Photographs that I once took simply as scenes of everyday Istanbul have gradually become documents of the city's memory. For me, this series is a small window into both the Istanbul of my youth and an urban way of life that has largely vanished.