Istanbul, up and down, 2015

„Istanbul, up and down" is a collage set in motion realised on the occasion of a residency in Istanbul in 2015. Based on personal photographs from inhabitants, visitors and myself, I created a moving collage that takes you on a walk through the city. The gathered image material ranged from IPhone Snapshots to black and white analogue prints, from digital photographs to diapositives from the 70’s. On the one hand each photographic viewpoint was unique, on the other hand some common stereotype motives and touristic highlights reappeared in all personal archives. Each persons photographic memories had a particular colour palette linked to a certain time and photo technical era. Thus in the video several peoples viewpoints on different parts of the city as well as several temporalities and photo techniques merge into one. 

To realize the video I reproduced all images as postcard sized prints and reframed their content by the means of cutting out. Loosely stapled on top of each other the fragile photo cut-outs refer to the unstable status of the documented places. Setting the cut outs in motion was a means to reflect this constant processes of deconstruction and new construction to which Istanbul - just as other metropoles - is submitted. "Istanbul up and down" is part of an ongoing series of video portraits of cities, all based on photographs collected from inhabitants, visitors and myself.