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| Ibrahim, Istanbul, Turkey 2013 |
In Turkey and especially in traditional parts of Istanbul, the local district where you live in plays an important role. In Tophane it was easy to find and experience this phenomenon of neighbourly aid and familiarity in your close-around local district - the so-called mahalle. As experiencing a mahalle and its people was my brightest highlight of my whole time in Istanbul I now want to try to introduce you to some people and shops which I more or less frequented during this time.
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| Ali Abi, Istanbul, Turkey 2013 |
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| Ali Abi, Istanbul, Turkey 2013 |
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| Ali Abi, Istanbul, Turkey 2013 |
Ali Abi, his brother Ibrahim and another two brothers of them are running a börek shop, called Özen Börek which is located on a highly frequented street called Boğazkesen Sokağı. They start selling their first rolls of börek at 4am and close at about 6pm. After partying a turkish tea and a plate of börek, being surrounded by cab drivers and the smell of pastry is a real remedy. I already miss sitting on small chairs and a tiny table in front of this shop, facing the sun, the sound of Ali Abi cutting börek, meeting and greeting people of the mahalle and observing busy street life. Whenever there is a minute of rest Ali Abi starts to sleep standing behind his counter as he is working all week to make his kids go to university.
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| Hayri, Istanbul, Turkey 2013 |
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| Cengiz, Istanbul, Turkey 2013 |
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| Hayri, Istanbul, Turkey 2013 |
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| Siyah, Istanbul, Turkey 2013 |
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| Hayri, Istanbul, Turkey 2013 |
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| Ibo, Istanbul, Turkey 2013 |
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| Arab, Istanbul, Turkey 2013 |
Hayri, Ibo, Siyah, Arab and Cengiz are working in bakery that is selling pide (bread with minced meat) lahmacun (turkish pizza) and lavaş (pita bread). Here it was always great to see how Siyah is making dough and how Ibo and Cengiz spread and bake it in the huge stone baking oven. Hayri and Arab are doing the service and deliver restaurants in close-by Beşiktaş with lavaş.
Most of these guys moved from Hatay in the very south of Turkey to Istanbul. They all share one room above the bakery to live in and especially with Hayri we became friends and spent some bar nights together. I really enjoyed the nice atmosphere in this shop and of course the food which is delicious.
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| Unknown & Ibrahim, Istanbul, Turkey 2013 |
Ibrahim is working in one of the numerous mobile phone shops. His shop is located just across the road from where
Özen Börek is. Apart from purchasing mobile phones and credit you can pay all your bills as electricity or water in his shop.
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| Sedat, Istanbul, Turkey 2013 |
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| Sedat, Istanbul, Turkey 2013 |
Sedat is one of the nicest guys in the mahalle. He is selling fried liver out of a cooking pot from the back of his van. The fried liver is mixed with fried potatoes, onions and some spices.You can either choose to have it with bread or not. When it is dark he is even having some fancy lights to illuminate his stand. Sedat also used to live 22km away from Dortmund in Germany for 6 years, which must be the reason he knows german phrases as 'Arbeit, Marbeit!'.
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| Hakan & Hasan, Istanbul, Turkey 2013 |
Hasan and his brother Hakan were our neighbours in Tophane as they lived in a flat below ours. Hakan just finished his examen to enter university and Hasan is working as accountant for an international company. We shared WiFi with them and Hasan invited me over to his place to have some awesome food his mum cooked for them.
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| Emre, unknown & Memo, Istanbul, Turkey 2013 |
As you may already have seen some earlier
photos on this blog you may recognize these young men. With
Emre,
Memo and other guys that used to hang around on the streets right in front of our house we used to go to games of
Tophane Tayfun, the local football club.
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| Yusuf, Istanbul, Turkey 2013 |
Yusuf is the construction worker who was doing some work at our place and around the district. He always invited us for tea and cookies but he also used our rooftop as homebase for his jobs. That is probably why he got dropped by our landlord. He also left his leather jacket in our flat for weeks and told us he will take it back when it is getting colder.
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Recep, Istanbul, Turkey 2013
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A bakkal is a small turkish shop where you can buy anything for your daily life. Recep was running such a shop right in front of our house. He sold fruit and vegetables, bread, cheese and beverages. As it is common in Turkey to get your groceries via a basket on a rope to your open window there was often a loud call for Recep from close houses to deliver some goods. Tunar was hanging around in and in front of Recep's shop sometimes cleaning a window pane or picking up fruit some customers had dropped.
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| Tunar, Istanbul, Turkey 2013 |
