Balkon

Photos by Orhan Pamuk

Yapı Kredi Kültür Sanat, İstiklal Cad 161, Galatasaray, Beyoğlu, 34433 İstanbul

Nobel Prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk, Istanbul’s primary chronicler of hüzün, presents an exhibition of evocative photographs shot from his balcony. Curated by the German publisher Gerhard Steidl (who also produced the eponymous photo book Balkon), the seemingly straightforward concept subtly explores the changing of a city between the period of December 2012 and April 2013.

He attempts to preserve Istanbul’s fleeting beauty, and, as befits an author famous for obsessive chronicling of things, to capture everything before him. Shooting at an average rate of seven photograph per hour, Pamuk documents his one view intensely. Through this constant shooting, Pamuk was able to transcend his own writer’s block.