| put all pictures into basket. | slideview | tableview | listview |
The Ferries of Istanbul by Sinan Cakmak
Crossing a bridge would be another possibility, and not a bad one at that: they also connect Europe and Asia. And they also have their place to place in Istanbul life, especially given the amphibious environment of this city. The peninsula and the water licking the shore of its salt, dirt and history, and three bodies of water at its disposal. There’s hardly another city in the world that thrives as successfully between low and high tide as this lovely metropolis on the Golden Horn. Thus it is more likely the traffic and the risk of being caught in a jam, especially on one of the bottlenecked bridges, that persuades many of the people of Istanbul to take the only real alternative plying its way from shore to shore: the popular ferry service. From the moment they cast off from a harbour mole, the real destination is neither Galata nor Karaköy: it’s a quiet moment spent watching the wake receding in the distance. Finally. Waiting or weeping on the waves of the waterway. And perhaps just as important: the chance for a tender embrace where the world is at its loveliest: in the no-man’s land between two continents. It’s no wonder that the announced threat to take the old ferries out of service and replace them with new ones sparked a wave of angry protests and had to be withdrawn. Sinan Cakmak lives in Istanbul, and the motifs of his photos capture the commuters’ trips, their moments of freedom and the range of their emotions as the ferryboats rock and roll across the water. One might say: the music of travelling from the city to the city.
