Bosphorus Cross-Continental Swimming Race — Istanbul · July 2009

The Bosphorus Cross-Continental Swimming Race is one of Istanbul's most unusual sporting events: swimmers enter the water on the Asian side and finish on the European side. The course begins around Kanlıca and ends at Kuruçeşme, turning the strait itself into a race route between two continents.

Swimming in the Bosphorus is very different from swimming in a pool or a closed-water course. Competitors must understand the surface current, avoid the reverse currents that form close to the bays and use the Istanbul shoreline as a sequence of visual reference points. Choosing the correct line is therefore part of the race; strength alone is not enough.

When I photographed the event in 2009, what interested me was the contrast between the individual swimmer and the immense scale of the Bosphorus. From the shore, hundreds of moving bodies could suddenly appear very small against the current, the bridges and the city. The race transforms a familiar part of Istanbul into a temporary sporting landscape and offers a rare way of experiencing the city from the water.