Lake Van, Turkey
This short month flew by, maybe because it was filled with so many yummy things. From a trip to Turkey’s east to a film festival in Istanbul, I kept busy and stretched the brief days out as long as I could. I also (again) neglected to really post on this blog, but I’m hoping that I’ll actually be able to write more for my own blog this month now that some of the projects I’ve been working on have wrapped up.
Istanbul, Turkey
Best Of The Month
Van is a city in Turkey’s wild east, close to the Iranian border and well-known for its sprawling breakfasts and massive lake. It’s also an unusual tourist destination… especially in February. But I went for a last-minute ladies’ weekend with three lovely friends and we just adored it— the ring of snow-capped mountains punctuating the horizon, the crystal-clear cerulean blue of Lake Van, and OH those breakfasts. I don’t usually travel in groups of four, but our little crew was filled with love and it was a treat to explore this region with such bighearted women. I’d love to go back there when the flowers are blooming and see even more of the region.
Van, Turkey
Worst Of The Month
The last week of this month (and the reason this update is late) is because I got buried in deadlines the last week of February. I powered through and it was fine, but yeah, it’s always better when they don’t all pile up at once.
Yedikilise, Van, Turkey
What I’m Loving
Reads: My friend Pesha lent me the novel Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward, and I really enjoyed it—especially since it’s not necessarily the kind of book I would have thought to pick out on my own.
Music: The queen Janelle Monae released new music at last and of course I’ve been obsessed with Make Me Feel. She’s the best and I can’t wait for her new album to come out.
Film/TV: This month was the !f Istanbul Independent Film Festival, and I snagged myself a press pass that allowed me to go to any of the daytime movies for free. Because my filmgoing companion was ill, I attended my first film alone and was mostly ignorant of what I was getting myself into. Kamikaze 1989 blew me away. It’s a sort of cyberpunk German dystopia, featuring a lead character in a leopard-print suit. I wrote about it more fully for Cornucopia.
Akhdamar Island, Van, Turkey
Podcasts: I always love 99% Invisible, but their two-parter on the Bijlmermeer was particularly special for two reasons. One, I love modernism-brutalism-utopian architecture, and the Bijlmer housing complex outside Amsterdam has all of that. Two, when I moved to Istanbul a friend gifted me a book called Journeys: How Travelling Fruit, Ideas and Buildings Rearrange Our Environment that has a section on the Bijlmer. The episodes pinged my memory and it was exciting to hear this deep dive into the stories of a really interesting architectural construction and the way immigration from Surinam reinvented the space.
I listened to a preview for a new podcast and realized halfway through that it’s about and by a friend of mine. Dear Franklin Jones delves into my friend Jonathan’s upbringing in a community that some would describe as a cult. I’ve only listened to the first episode but I can’t wait to hear the rest. (Sidenote: I met Jonathan and his wife Val in Kotor, Montenegro when I was stuck there with a cold… we reconnected in Belgrade a few weeks later and have since also met up in San Francisco. The world is very small and wonderful!)
Istanbul, Turkey
The Film Files
After barely shooting in January, I actually shot quite a few rolls this month thanks to our Van excursion. I haven’t gotten them developed yet, however. I also received another batch of double exposures from my ongoing project with my friend in New York. Speaking of which…
Yedikilise, Van, Turkey
Ephemera
In February I prepared for the first partial showing of our Dreamspace project, which opened March 2 at Orjin Maslak. One of my goals is to have a fuller showing of this work sometime this year, so this was just the first step.
Lake Van, Turkey
Upcoming
I’m taking two trips out of Turkey in March, to Kiev and Milan! It will be my third trip to Kiev (and second in the winter) in the last year and a half, and my first trip to Italy since I was 13. Needless to say, I am very excited about both.
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