TURKEY TRAVELLERS CITIES, TOWNS, VILLAGES

Fatih, Istanbul and Aegean Turkey Black&White Photographs in 1974-1975

16/01/2022

312

https://booksonturkey.com/?s=1975

The photographs I took half a century ago in Istanbul Fatih, on the historical peninsula and in ancient cities such as Troy, Bergama, Ephesus, Didim, in the Aegean, shed light on our day. The permanence of ancient cities, which have not changed for thousands of years, clad in silence and solitude, and the sharp and striking change in the time period of 50 years in the city of Istanbul, occur together before our eyes and extend to us from the beginning years of the 21st century. The ancient cities we visited on the Aegean coast were living their heyday when Istanbul was not yet in the middle.

Despite the magnificence of Istanbul’s historical buildings, the poverty and deprivation observed in the 1975 photographs raise questions about whether human welfare or magnificent stone structures are permanent. The ruined historical wooden structures seen in the photographs were quickly destroyed and left their places to reinforced concrete structures. The apartment building fashion, which started in the mid-1950s, has rapidly changed the face of the city in 20 years.

I have been trying to convey the world reflected by the photographs and our impressions with subtitles.

In terms of political history, 1975 is the interim period between the coup d’etat of March 12, 1971 and the coup of September 12, 1980. The country conditions of a period between military coups have been brought to light with photographs.

After the shooting of the photos, I took photos, shared videos and published them as videos under the title of Teavller’s Talks during my business trips to 32 countries in 32 years in the export sector, in which I was involved by chance in a time period approaching ten years. This time it was the outside world that was in question, and I plan to publish these photos as a book again. This is the result of the spirit of Fatih, regarding the world view, the unity of people, that I acquired in the Fatih district of Istanbul.