The color of Turkish delight.

Izmir, Turkey. The days here are full of energy and life, the summer nights, when they eventually arrive are quiet and introspective. As a city, I knew nothing of Izmir, her charms and rhythm, cultures, language, all were a mystery to me. This lack of knowledge made me feel like an outsider in the city, during the day there were stares and whispers, strange, as I had thought I could have easily passed for a local, the men sitting outside the cafes would stop and stare as I passed down the street. This inability to communicate openly and the feeling I was an outsider encouraged me to take to the streets at night, where, under cover of darkness, I could become invisible and to wander without challenge through the industrial and suburban streets of Karsiyaka. When eventually the darkness does come falling from the sky a shimmering red glow begins to cast pools of light along the small lanes and back streets. This red glow, a favored form of local advertising, adds a cinematic punch of light to the gloomy old streets, transforming small pockets of the night into capsules of lively cheer. The color red can mean many things, it's often used to signal caution or danger but it's also the color of passion and of blood and fire. The Chinese use red as the color of good luck. Red is also considered an intense and even angry color that creates feelings of excitement and intensity. But somehow, passion and danger and intensity just didn’t suit these small vignettes in the night. They seem to be smaller in scale and a little quieter, maybe it's just the color of Turkish Delight.