The Quiet Side of Istanbul

I am fascinated by what people do and how they live. As a child, one of my favorite books was Richard Scarry's "What Do People Do All Day?" The book is a visual exploration of mundane tasks, work, and play. My photography tends to explore the same themes around the world: People in their most ordinary moments--" life". This visual curiosity is not only about the people or the place where I am located. It is also very much about how I fit into the world. What are the similarities and the differences? Where is the unity in my existence with the strangers I photograph? In this series, I explore Istanbul. I traveled during the pandemic in November 2020, before Turkey went into a serious lockdown, to attempt to understand the culture and the daily occurrences on the street. The opportunity to see Istanbul and its people in a quieter, more reserved setting was a possibility that may not occur in my lifetime again. Because I wanted to document the people and places of Istanbul in order to make personal connections, expression of life was paramount whereas the pandemic aspect was ignored as much as possible.