random (dis)harmony

Mutilated - Midyat (Eastern Turkey), 2015

The Leaping Tiger - Safranbolu (Turkey), 2013

Hasankeyf is an ancient town located along the Tigris river in Southeastern Turkey. In Roman times, the town was strategically important and the legionnaires built a bridge and a castle on the hills overlooking the town. This picture was taken on the opposite shore of the river, a pleasant spot where the town’s predominantly Kurdish inhabitants enjoy the view, go for weekend picnics and show off their pimped out cars.  

Personally, I am not a big fan of rugs. But in a time when in our more developed consumer societies cars look identically boring and replaceable, car owners in Eastern Turkey can undoubtedly teach us a thing about quirky individuality. Long live the car rug! 

Dogubayazit is a small town in Eastern Turkey populated by Kurdish folks and situated very close to the Iranian border. As it is the last stop on the road to Iran, dozens of truck repair shops line the dusty streets of this town. Inside those shops, young guys sit on worn out sofas sipping tea and waiting for customers who might stop day and night. Behind the town, the majestic Mt. Ararat can be seen, the place where, according to certain legends, Noah and his Ark set foot after the great deluge.

Truck repair shops are generally grim looking places, but Mustafa’s place sort of stood out from the pack. The portrait of the handsome man in the shop window made me stop in my tracks and admire this peck of beauty in the midst of all those dozens of greasy roadside repair shops on the way to the border with Iran.

One of the many abandoned truck repair shops beside the main transit road of Dogubayazit. 

As can be seen from this picture, the rather interesting sales strategy of the local car tire business owners consists of piling up used tires on their basic repair huts. Maybe in this way Turkish and Iranian truck driver are constantly reminded changing their worn out tires before ending up in a ditch.

Tosun’s Truck Repair Shop - Dogubayazit (Turkey), 2015

Repair shops, car tire businesses, and of course car wash places. Dogubayazit: a truck driver’s heaven.

Sarayi means palace in Turkish. But when I stood in front of this small wedding place in Dogubayazit, the uninviting mountains in the background, the border road with heavy traffic on the other side, the word Palace felt slightly out of place.

Tangled - Chisinau (Moldova), 2015

Mafia escape car - Tbilisi (Georgia), 2015

Hotel National - Chisinau (Moldova), 2015

Game over - Athens, 2015

Love is in the air - Tbilisi (Georgia), 2015

Hey! Ho! Let’s Go - near Izmit (Turkey), 2015