NEW

September 16, 2026

İSTANBUL THE DISTANT CITY

Dear Readers,

*Istanbul: Distant City*—the third book in the photo-reportage series—will soon be hitting bookstore shelves. These Istanbul stories are currently being imprinted onto pristine paper by the printing presses; six photo-reportages, spanning over thirty years, are set to unfold before the reader like a film strip. We are watching the road and listening for the rhythmic clatter of the press... We await its arrival with great excitement. Once the scent of ink reaches us, we will announce this "birth"—which we have so eagerly awaited—to you, our dear readers.

Here is the "Foreword" that opens the book:

FOREWORD

             Istanbul / The Distant City is a selection of six photo interviews: Topkapı Flea Market, Nomadic Ramadan Drummers, Golden Horn Boaters, Erzurum Tea House, Junk Dealers, and Soup House Dwellers are part of this selection. Topkapı Flea Market is the first of the photo interviews describing Istanbul, its residents, and those who are not residents of Istanbul. The story of the residents of the flea market set up in Topkapı, next to Trakya Bus Terminal, is my first work, my first love, of which I did not like the five drafts of the text and decided to write the sixth. Days of March 1987, which I was eagerly awaiting its publication. And others that I prepared with great enthusiasm. The Ramadan Drummers, who set up their tents in the shadow of the Edirnekapı walls in the cold of March and the mud, are the other heroes of the photo interview. In the cold of winter, in the tent of a drummer, it was the 90-plus-year-old woman who caused me the most pain, who resembled a sycamore tree among her children and grandchildren. Next to her were her grandchildren, barefoot and struggling to scrape the bottom of the cooking pot, the symbol of poverty, hunger, and despair! What about Grandpa İsmail of the Golden Horn Boaters? Despite his advanced age, he was the "ass kicker against the young boaters" With his pleasant conversation, he transported his passengers from one side of the Golden Horn to the other. The famous Erzurum Tea House was the place of hookah sellers under the old Galata Bridge. The regulars of the tea house, Mr. Recep's customers, were hookah sellers. Does anyone know the oldies? Among the customers of the junk dealers, we frequently met on the streets, in the old inns of the city, and the breaks of the historic mosques were even "doctors, lecturers, etc...". The last photo interview was for the residents of the soup kitchen who lined up every day at noon in the soup kitchen in Eyüp Sultan Social Complex to get regular meals, while the other residents of the soup kitchen were the ones who came to sacrifice.

This selection was published in Cumhuriyet newspaper and some magazines from 1987 to the late 1990s. After more than 30 years, this book is the third part of the photo interview series with the photos I have just compiled from my photo archive: Istanbul Stories from the 1980s and 90s...

April 8, 2026

Dear readers,

In these beautiful spring days when plants are in bloom, the printing of our book PAMPHYLIA has been completed and it has taken its place on bookstore shelves.

NEW PUBLICATION

We will be announcing and promoting our new books on these pages before they hit the shelves in pre-printing. Our preparations are underway; we will be presenting our new publication when the trees are in bloom.