Art and Literature Contributors in Istanbul — Turkey · 2009–2019

Between 2009 and 2019 I photographed a number of people whose work has contributed to Istanbul's artistic, literary and cultural life. The series includes sculptors, painters, architects, poets, novelists, designers, broadcasters and musicians: Bihrat Mavitan, Artin Demirci, Nevzat Sayın, Roni Margulies, Akın Yıldırım, Orhan Pamuk, Emre Senan, Ömer Madra, Okay Temiz, Mehmet Güleryüz and Haydar Ergülen.

I did not approach these photographs as a catalogue of famous names. What interested me was the person behind the public identity: a face, a gesture, a room, a working environment, or sometimes only a brief moment in which character became visible. Portrait photography can be very simple in appearance, yet it depends on the relationship established between photographer and subject.

Seen together, these portraits form a small record of Istanbul's cultural world across a decade. Each person belongs to a different discipline, but all of them have taken part, in their own way, in the intellectual and artistic life of the city.