Istanbul on board

Ara Guler's Istanbul is Bosphorus' mouth, it is tramway 26 at Sirkeci, the city in the 50's and 60's, its struggling people, the fishermen, its huzun (melancholy).

But the same Istanbul is also Alphan's, his childhood's and now his photographic mastery's. 

Places change, people too, but their complicity does not. The city and its inhabitants keep their eternal dance. The city changes them and them the city, but they keep the same passion for each other. They keep creating memories which will not fade away. 

I have never visited Istanbul to photograph it. I am persuaded, and humbly accepting, that it is one of the cities that only their inhabitants are able to capture their soul. Brassai's and Bresson's Paris, Raghubir Singh's India, Winogrand's New York, Guler's and Alphan's Istanbul … will never reveal their mysteries to us the common visitors.

Because these local photographers are the only capable to create poetic testaments and testimonies by distilling, day in - day out, the many layers of an overwhelming Eastern Balkanic existence.

Photos from Alphan Yilmazmaden series: On board