Street - Istanbul

Great stuff Pete. I particularly like these:


I was there for about a week in '81. Would love to go back someday, but I have no idea when or if that'll ever happen... Here's the one shot I have from that trip that might be worth adding to the thread - the rest were your garden variety tourist shots of mosques and stuff. I spent 3-4 hours in a rug shop in the main market negotiating over a small oriental rug that I folded up and carried around in my backpack for the rest of that trip (several more months at that point. And its in our bedroom still... I'm sure the guy made tons of money but for $150, its still one of my favorite purchases...

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Istanbul, 1981 by ramboorider1, on Flickr

-Ray
 
Istanbul a decade earlier 1972 (Hichhiked there, then teamed up with two Americans & drove through central Turkey ie Cappodocia & onto Mersin on the South coast.
My everlasting impression .. it was like driving through the Wild West.)

Zenith E with Meyer Lydith 30mm : Slide

View attachment 68799
 
Excellent captures... Ricoh is new Leica:)

Here is even older photos of Istanbul from "Turkish photographer Ara Guler, nicknamed “The Eye of Istanbul”, also Master of Leica-1962 (repost from Leica forum):
Ara Guler | Offical Web Site-Istanbul Photos

or just a google image search gives some of his photos:
ara guler - Google Search

From one his interviews:
He still takes photographs and always carries a camera with him. “I don’t know how many cameras I have, but it’s above 50. I don’t use an expensive $8,000 camera, but a $600 camera. The result is very beautiful, I like it,” he said.

And one of his books:
Ara Guler's Istanbul
 
I spent 3-4 hours in a rug shop in the main market negotiating over a small oriental rug that I folded up and carried around in my backpack for the rest of that trip (several more months at that point. And its in our bedroom still... I'm sure the guy made tons of money but for $150, its still one of my favorite purchases...-Ray

Had similar carpet experiences in Istanbul but the thought of lugging around a carpet in my rucksack did not appeal. We visited Kayseri on our way to Goreme & got collared by a local merchant who desperately tried to sell me one of his fine rugs & wanted to trade my size 11 boots for one. He got pretty inflamed when he discovered the prices charged in Istanbul. I very much regret I needed the boots & now don’t have them to hang on a wall.
 
Never had it on a wall - always on the floor of a living room, bedroom, office - many locations over the years. Its only about 4.5 x 3 feet. This thing's been witness to my whole adult life. I should really get it cleaned - its got 32 years worth of accumulated dirt and dust in it, but it still looks great and is going strong. I'm sure the salesman made out quite well, but so did I, so everybody wins. He sent a kid out for Turkish coffees about half a dozen times during the negotiation. I forget where it started - I think well north of $300. I left a couple of times to check out other sellers in the market, but this was the rug. Its cool to have a few possessions with these kinds of memories tied up in them...

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Istanbul rug by ramboorider1, on Flickr

-Ray
 
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