Grand Bazaar Masters,  Istanbul 2006 - 2019  Still an Ongoing Project

A culture based on hundreds of years of profession group and unwritten rules. Very few know the details of how the products in the bazaar showcases are produced. My work tells the stories of the masters who produce these works. The portfolio covering the years 2006-2019 includes the work of ten different masters. The small rooms of the old Byzantine and Ottoman inns from the past to the present are workshops today. The journey, which started with the melting of metal in furnaces, continues its journey in different workshops. A finished product is never the work of a single master. The added value created at each stage ensures that the workshops survive. This profession does not have a school. Profession usually begins with an apprenticeship at a young age. After many years, successful apprentices become masters and establish their own workshops. The operation of the system is based on trust. Workshops that provide and maintain this trust continues. The workshops are the continuation of the guild system, which was established many years ago in Anatolia and constitutes the working rules of the professions and controls the quality that protects them.