Seven decades of Istanbul captured by Feruz Erturer

Welcome back to AL-MONITOR Istanbul.

This week, we lounge in the afterglow of Valentine’s Day and the flurry of February openings across the city. At Bulgur Palas, Feruz Erturer’s seven-decade archive reminds us that cities are built not only of stone but of glances. In Karakoy, Sen’den revives old Istanbul recipes inside a restored building from the 1910s. Self-taught artists take over Metrohan, Sultanbeyli offers an elastic rethinking of Europe and Yapi Kredi Museum pairs shadow theater with contemporary memory.

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Thanks for reading,

Nazlan (@NazlanEr on X)

P.S. Have tips on Istanbul’s culture scene? Send them my way at nertan@al-monitor.com.

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1. Leading the week: ‘Another World Where He Looked’

Erturer’s testimony of his hometown Adapazari and Istanbul (Photo courtesy of IBB Kultur)

On Istanbul’s seventh hill, where the restored halls of Bulgur Palas look out over domes and minarets, veteran photographer Feruz Erturer’s “Another World Where He Looked” gathers seven decades of witnessing Turkey and its human landscape.

Born in 1936 in Adapazari to a family of studio photographers, Erturer grew up among glass plates, enlargers and chemical trays. His father, known locally as Photographer Ahmet, was a traveling portraitist who would correct posture, adjust a collar and retouch negatives by hand. Erturer learned by watching. He later trained as a technical draftsman, worked for decades in public service, refereed national basketball games, fished the shores of Lake Sapanca and photographed throughout his life. The discipline of draftsmanship, the timing of sport and the patience of angling all quietly fed his frame.

Curated by Murat Gur and organized by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality’s IBB Culture and IBB Heritage, the exhibition is structured with clarity. The first floor traces formation: family archives, original negatives, darkroom equipment and reflections by fellow photographers Coskun Aral, Izzet Keribar and Ibrahim Zaman. A short documentary explores Erurer’s ever-adapting life.

Upstairs, around 70 photographs — selected from roughly 500, many shot on a Lubitel medium-format camera — carry the weight of memory, from Adapazari’s muddy streets to Istanbul ferry docks and children carrying huge loads at a popular bazaar. The recent high-resolution scans sharpen detail without sanding away the grain.

“I want to look at Istanbul again — through the golden ratio. I am telling you this for the first time,” he said in an interview with art journalist Aysun Oz before the opening. Asked where he would begin: “The Palace and its surroundings. Old Istanbul. There are still places where I lose myself. … I want to go back and photograph them again.” And of Balat: “I photographed Balat for many years. I shot it 15 years ago, again and again. Now it has changed.”

“Over the Galata Bridge, 1960s” by Feruz Erturer (Photo courtesy of IBB Kultur)

Clearly, even at the age of 90, he is not summing up; he is preparing to walk the city once more.

📍Where: Aksaray Mahallesi, Kargi Sokak No:3 Fatih 

🗓️ When: until Aug. 16

Find more information here.

2. Word on the street: Sen’den

Sea food platter with its now-famous tarama (Photo courtesy of Sen’den)

Lively Karakoy has a new address: Rana and Erol Tabanca, the couple behind Odunpazari Modern Museum, have restored the 1910s Hovagimyan building, designed by architect Leon Nafilyan, into the 21-room Hovagimyan Hotel & Suites. They have also opened Sen’den (roughly translated as “From You” or “Of You.”) on the ground floor. Sen’den reworks old Istanbul recipes with local produce: seafood plates arrive as bottarga, lakerda, anchovy butter and tarama; mercimekli manti nods to Eskisehir; ayvali yaprak ciger — thinly sliced liver with quince — and seafood firik pilavi hold their own, while vegetarians find ample room at the table. Postcards on each table invite diners to write down dishes tied to their own memories, and who knows — some may one day enter the menu.

📍Where: Karamustafapasa Mahallesi Kemankes Caddesi No:45

Find more information here.

3. Istanbul diary

Ali Yaycioglu, a Stanford professor and self-taught artist, “My Syntax 21” (Photo courtesy of IBB)

• At Metrohan, restored by IBB Miras, “Oda Oda/Room by Room” displays more than 200 works by self-taught artists, including Ali Yaycioglu, Arzu Ertekin, Emre Baloglu, Nilufer Satana, Ozlem Baser and Pembe Tuzuner.  Don’t let “self-taught” put you off — a definite must-see. Until March 29.
• Off-center at Sultanbeyli, YUNT art gallery’s “PresentAbsent: Under the Rug,” curated by Merve Elveren and Meric Oner, introduces the photographic collages of Metehan Ozcan. His long-running “Heroes,” series dwells on overlooked urban residues, while Mona Mahall and Asli Serbest’s “newold europe” reimagine Europe as an elastic geography through Neolithic traces stretching from the Danube to Anatolia. Until May 3.
• At Yapi Kredi Museum, “The Whistling Memory” brings the museum’s numismatic and shadow theater collections into dialogue with contemporary works by Lebanese artist Akram Zaatari, Iraqi-American artist Michael Rakowitz and Canakkale-born Hilal Can. Curated by Burcu Cimen, the exhibition revolves around the archive, light, shadow and loss. Until June 7.