Istanbul met twee oevers van de rivier de Bosporus en schepen op de rivier 1909 - 1918

This photograph of Istanbul with the Bosporus was made by an anonymous artist using a camera, lens and photographic paper, sometime in the past. Look closely at the grainy texture, the way the buildings and ships emerge from a sea of indistinct marks. It's like the photographer was building up the image bit by bit, developing the city and the river through a kind of meditative process. The material quality of the photograph is striking; the surface of the paper has a tactile presence. Notice how the light catches on the tiny details, the roofs of the buildings, the masts of the ships. It's as if the photographer was trying to capture not just a visual likeness of Istanbul, but also its very essence, its weight, its history. Consider that single minaret rising above the rooftops, so sharp and clear, almost like a symbolic gesture. This image reminds me of those early modernist photographers, like Alfred Stieglitz, who were experimenting with abstraction and representation, trying to find new ways of seeing the world through the lens. Ultimately, it's a reminder that art is an ongoing conversation, a process of discovery and interpretation that never really ends.