In the last couple of weeks I have finally got inside some of the buildings I have wondered about since moving to Galata. The day after Hellen, Oskar and Pepi left, and feeling a little homesick, I was dawdling with Neve a few minutes from home and peered over a wall to see a little piece of England: a Victorian Church in a leafy garden. There was a bell to ring that didn't get answered, but, after a week of trying, Ville and I walked past to see the gates open. The smell inside the Crimean Memorial Church (designed by George Edmund Street) took me right back to visiting countryside churches on walks with my Dad. A group was preparing to give a concert that evening, so Neve ran around on Victorian tiles covered in Turkish carpets to the sound of the ney. Ville and I also spent a lovely Saturday walking around Karaköy on one of Monica's marvellous tours. I was able to explore the synagogue just around the corner from us, and the Greek school five minutes in the other direction, that was filled with art for the recent Biennial.
I now often find that it is much easier to capture what touches me through photography, than trying to find the words. Like the picture of Neve spreading her arms ready to envelope a moody Anton. Their irritation with each other is thankfully not (quite) as big as their mutual adoration! Or the picture of the man who sits at the Tophane end of our street, perched like a pixie, chain-smoking. I don't know anything about him, wouldn't have any idea how to describe him, but here he is. Everything I know about him is in this picture. So little but quite a lot. Like the picture of Ruskin sat alone waiting for Matti's basketball practice to begin. I love the chance to catch him unobserved, so much his own person. And it's such a pleasure to catch the sun lighting the edges of the little rabble of humanity that I am so proud to call my family. Through photographs I can show how entranced I am by Istanbul in it's melancholy winter coat of rust reds and slate greys, and what a pleasure it is to see my little clan of characters moving through this dramatic backdrop.
Thank you so very much for all the beautiful comments after my last post. It is incredibly strengthening to feel this solidarity. I am surrounded by people of immense generosity, and it makes me very happy indeed. I am determined that I will meet you all face to face one day to thank you for your support on this journey.
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