Changing Stories

Photographs from Istanbul and Anatolia

Klaus W. Eisenlohr, Levent Karaoğlu

Levent Karao?lu and Klaus W. Eisenlohr explore how people suffer or adapt to the changes in the urban environment in Turkey. They have been cooperating artistically for seven years, also in cultural exchange projects in Istanbul and Berlin supported by the town-twinning association Kadiköy e.V.

Internal migration has transformed Istanbul since the 1960s, from a quite middle-class metropolis into a megacity, whose gecekondu (‘built overnight’) informal settlements long made it possible to keep up the traditions of rural handicrafts alongside the growing industrialization. They forged a bridge between Europe and Asia, between the middle-class, European-oriented Istanbul and the traditionally oriented people from Anatolia (Asia Minor). But now, the gecekondus are having to make way for vast construction projects.

Karao?lu’s and Eisenlohr’s pictures reflect the rapid transformations in Asia Minor and Istanbul paired with an aesthetic view, yes, with beauty, while focusing on people and urban space.

The exhibition at world in a room is the first joint exhibition of their work.