Winter Festival at Ayder Plateau — Çamlıhemşin, Turkey · January 2012

Ayder Plateau lies high in the mountains of the eastern Black Sea region. In January 2012 I photographed its winter festival, a public celebration in which the snow itself became the main stage. This was not a conventional ski event based on expensive equipment. People climbed the slopes carrying truck inner tubes and simple plastic sheets, then came down together at considerable speed.

The improvised sleds created their own rules. A strong pair of hands might serve as a brake, while a large group on a single tube needed both courage and luck to remain together. The result was playful, sometimes chaotic and always communal. What interested me was the way people transformed severe winter conditions into a shared form of entertainment.

Music and dance were just as important as sliding on the snow. For two days people joined hands for the horon, accompanied by the tulum, the traditional Black Sea bagpipe. Against the white plateau, the circle of dancers, the sound of the instrument and the constant movement gave the festival its distinctive character.