returning to Istanbul

april 2023

41.0082° N, 28.9784° E

unavailing attempts at creative re-discovery

*a canon eos700d, with a crop factor of maybe 5, using Magic Lantern. a freak of nature.*

i ended my previous piece on Istanbul with the following: but the reader may have already figured out this is nothing but an excuse to return to Constantinople as soon as humanly possible. on account of the pandemic, it had been a lacklustre visit - closed stores, relatively empty streets, all with a measure of anxiety. more importantly, the local authorities had probably decided to take advantage of the reduced footfall to refurbish key historical sites, further narrowing down touristic possibilities.

the Istanbul i discovered in 2023 was a different animal altogether. the crowds had been let loose, and the steady uptick in tourist numbers had indeed painted a much brighter, more fragrant picture of the city. the squares i’d previously had to myself now belonged to people from all corners of the world, shops bustling with patrons, while others watched from shaded rooftop cafes.

it felt as if something magical hung in the air and i immediately wished to uncover its source. to this end, i ventured to the Cistern Basilica. in its perpetually moving waters, i saw ripples of magic, but i soon understood that was not its origin. in the nooks of the Grand Bazaar, more magic awaited, some of it purchasable in the form of various exotic goods. but that was hardly what i’d been looking for, so i thought i’d find more of that magic emanating from the city’s many layers of history. that i did, but none of it was going to strike a pose for me to photograph. somewhat disappointed, i settled to imagine how much more of it could be found around the hidden congregation spots for the city's many cats.

in essence, i had nothing. no topic to chase. i had not done my homework.

lopsided

so i pulled out some of the old tricks.

switching perspective based on something other than our own natural, most common point of view (i.e. standing upright) is by no means new in the world of photography. but where i thought it truly made a difference was in the heights of Fatih, around the areas known as Fanar and Balat. there, many structures are built along the hill emerging from the Bosphorus.

*nauseating at worst, dali-esque at best.*

struggling up the narrow streets or almost tumbling my way down, i thought many buildings looked like dominoes, frozen mere moments from collapse. it was amusing to think about. it eventually became clear that a lot of the local flavour could be captured this way, with the added bonus of geometric visual spectacle.

the “creative” process

anaemic allegories aside, i find that the complexity of cities such as Istanbul cannot easily be captured from a walking tourist’s perspective. not in any meaningful or culturally relevant way, at least. still, i would never look down upon the value of personal photographs, such as shots of oneself standing in front of tourist attractions. structuring a set of photographs around a clearly articulated criterion, such as “my vacation in Istanbul in fifteen shots” or something along these lines is still, i would argue, a good first step in the right direction.

this being my second visit, i had already exhausted the touristy approach. in effect, i spent the first few days in a daze, working my day job remotely and pondering over what to shoot. unluckily, the glut of potential topics, all requiring more time than i truly had, led to me just wander around. at street level, there was a lot to work with, but i desperately wanted to avoid what i call “the Marrakesh effect” and walk away with thousands upon thousands of photographs.

i must have been no older than 22 when i first went to Marrakech. at the time, my only goal was to make “beautiful” images, eye-catching stuff that would garner loads of impressions on social media. for that purpose alone, i was at an optimal stage of development. but when i ended up spending over three weeks in Marrakech and produced no tangible results, i knew something had gone amiss. walking around as a “street photographer” was not going to cut it anymore. i took most of my good photos over the first few days. once the novelty started wearing off, so did my inspiration - i was reaching around in the dark. i still did what i had set out to do, which was to take interesting photos. but towards the end of my stay, quantity increased dramatically, while quality did the opposite.

i could have gone with my old approach and chase “the shot,” setting a goal of maybe two or three outstanding photos for the entire trip. that wasn’t going to work either: i wanted to tell a story. this is more of a rhetorical question, but don't you find that you must often infer the story a photograph is trying to tell? doesn't it often feel like you're clutching at straws? none of what i wanted to do was fine art, none of it had to be obscure or unapproachable.

*all it really takes is walking around.*

at home, i found myself throwing bad shots in a “for instagram” bin in Lightroom. there’s nothing wrong with putting less spectacular products to work, but that simply isn’t the purpose of journeys and its adjacent platforms. none of this is meant to garner wide recognition. in reality, creating interesting images takes time, patience, planning, all of which social media tends to discourage. a bin of photos “for instagram” is all but antithetical to what journeys stands for.

surplus: highway to the death of creativity

for me, creativity has always been inextricably bound to limitation. with the purchase of my Nikon D750 and the so-called “golden trinity” of lenses, i had all the versatility i needed to perform my style of photography. a “light” Sony A6000 complements the Nikon. after numerous years of swapping gear, using it to its untimely death or toasting my patience over its limitations, i am no longer held back by my cameras. however, the price i’ve had to pay has been creativity. this isn’t to say i haven’t “grown into” my tools. in fact, i believe i have earned my right to the consistency and reliability of what i own.

*ridiculous flexibility and image quality with the D750.*

a few short years back, i owned a single (APS-C) camera and a couple of primes. this encouraged the sort of creative thinking which a focal range of 20 to 200mm, covered by fast, robust lenses and a modern full frame camera simply does not.

Catstantinople

the tourist with a massive camera around their neck who still reaches for their smartphone to snap photos has probably become a trope at this point. frankly, I've seen it myself: a European-looking gentleman, donning sandals and socks, with a (then) high end D800 and a massive 14-24/2.8, strapped to a professional holster, pulls out an iPhone and starts snapping away. to their defence, whoever they may be, a camera phone perhaps relieves you of the expectations that come with a ten pound DSLR. or perhaps they merely wanted to share whatever they had seen with friends – let me tell you, that generation of cameras did not always make it easy to share your products in the absence of a computer.

once social media had started cementing itself as a credible outlet for marketing photography, i saw the value of using smartphones for “serious” photography. contradictorily, i never used them to that end myself.

istanbul's wealth of felines presented a golden opportunity for shots of what i saw as reduced seriousness or importance. i did not quite associate my full frame DSLR with this category of photography – a less serious topic required a less serious camera. as such, every time i saw a cat, i whipped out my iPhone and did my best to be a little more playful in my approach. thus, i became the tourist i described above.

… with the exception of the sock'n'sandal setup. that one's still unforgivable in my book, in spite of its seeming popularity among media moguls.

what came of this exercise, then, is a set of images with surprising thematic coherence. it's not just a bunch of photos of cats. it's a bunch of snapshots of life in the city, but a little closer to the pavement.

more of my creativity and experience went into putting this together than i would like to admit. in a hunt for converging lines, clean angles, or that elusive moment when my furry subjects remained still, i put into this whole thing quite a bit of effort. it felt like it did “back in the day” – chasing the shot had become... literally chasing it. but this time, the shot had four legs, dusty fur, and usually, a strangely piercing gaze.

looking ahead: journeys and the future

so where does all this leave journeys? with my view to putting in place a more consistent hiking schedule, exactly there: in the woods, among the tall grasses, in the shadow of the snowy peaks. this platform has seen me try my hand at a multitude of formats, but most of them have been a struggle to publish. moving forward, i will be focusing on informative travel logs, not unlike Annapurna or Kilimanjaro. given the (logistic, physical, and financial) effort which goes into executing these so-called “expeditions,” i may have to resort to posting no more than a couple of articles a year. this, naturally, goes against the grain in a world of social media and impressions, but it is what it is.

by focusing on extreme travel, i wish to bring back subject matter of genuine value, not just a “personal perspective” on things which have already been covered ad infinitum.

if there are things rarely seen or photographed, i will venture out to get them.

addendum

as it is copiously pointed out in this bit of text, i wrote this some time in 2023. the trip itself happened in april ‘23. as i type this clarifying chapter in october ‘24, i look back at the entire piece and giggle - perhaps the value of a manifesto-like post, such as this one, is to nail down a point of reference for oneself.

from a photographic perspective, my dissatisfaction led me to switch to film - a limiting, yet flavorful new medium for me to play with. its novelty did well to unlock creativity, not too dissimilar to what i had experienced photographing with my old iPhone. but the lustre quickly wore off and i found myself grappling with the exact same set of questions about my creative capacity, discipline, or technical prowess.

it rarely is the tool, isn’t it?

but i’d still suggest taking a look at my early results using that medium during my Island Peak trek.