In Istanbul, I spent time traipsing around the back streets of the culturally rich, cosmopolitan city, armed with my rangefinder and a crumpled map, waiting for the city to inspire me. Two days passed, and my memory card remained empty. Growing increasingly frustrated, I continued to rise early, spending the day walking before returning to my hotel spent and dejected.
I decided to take the next morning off from photography. My camera, however, remained in hand but the stress of the search lifted. Gradually, images began to emerge. A man, covered in the dirt of his trade was standing wearily in a doorway. Unbeknownst to him, his clothes matched the colour palette of the dilapidated building that supported his tired frame. Children ran in all directions, chasing footballs, jumping over walls or transporting heavy loads on their backs. In the evening, I stumbled across a family keeping warm around a fire lit in the drainage system. They smiled as I walked towards them for a closer look.
With these images, I explore the normal, everyday, split-second occurrences of a city. They capture people interacting with their environment, and often unknowingly, becoming a component of a more complex scene. The city’s vibrant colours are represented throughout, echoing its spirited people and their joie de vivre. Graphical, diagonal elements are framed to reference steep gradients that characterise a city bridging two continents. Subtle reminders, such as a medieval tower in the background, or steps that lead to one of the city’s many mosques, are left to contextualise and draw in the viewer.
Robin Sinha
