Streets of Balat
Balat in Istanbul, Turkey has been one of my favorite sites of photography for years. As the restoration of this town which had been abandoned by it's prosperous inhabitants mostly Non Muslims, long ago, now receiving the attention and support of UNESCO and The European Union, I felt the urge to bring my contribution portraying the lives of the recent inhabitants, working class migrants and multichildren families.
Walking the streets of Balat with my camera where ropes with colorful laundry drawn from old balconies across the street, dance to the tunes of their folk music sounding through open windows is commonplace, happy children, nice to passers by, play their marble games on the dusty ground, as cars carefully navigate around them, before they are called home for dinner by anxious mothers. I observe: Balat has a magic where it's rich cultural past always reigns it is somehow passed onto the new dwellers regardless who they are.
Morris Alkalay photographer Read Less