Istanbul at Dawn exhibition
Photography project by Anthony Epes, Part of the East End Film Festival
June 22nd-28th 2016
Spitalfields Market, Brushfield Street, London E1 6AA
Further details/exhibition link here.
Dawn, particularly in the spring and summer months, brings something incredible to our cities – beauty, serenity and emptiness. Even in Istanbul, home to over 14 million people, 4am on a May morning finds you wandering through empty streets as the colours of dawn break through a midnight blue sky.
As part of his series on Cities at Dawn, American photographer Anthony Epes spent several months in Istanbul photographing the city in the hours around sunrise. Anthony has captured the exquisite beauty of the light at dawn and the historic majesty of this ancient city – as well as the odd person he encountered on his travels.
Anthony says:
“I photograph dawn partly because I love the combination of the incredible, almost ethereal light at sunrise and the fact that without the people dominating the city you get to see Istanbul as it is, just the buildings, the streets, undisturbed by the crowds. It’s almost as if the city takes on a serene and peaceful life of its own.
Dawn brings a deep, almost primal excitement at watching the rebirth of the day. There is a feeling of hope and possibility. Life is ahead of us. The mistakes of yesterday are long gone; the mistakes of today have yet to be made. It’s almost impossible not to be excited by the potential of the day.
It’s funny too – that dawn is a very inspiring time and yet most of us miss it. Yes being in bed and sleeping is great – but how about waking up a few hours earlier and watching something so breathtaking it changes how you see your city and makes you feel great just to be alive.”
See BBC World clip of Anthony talking about why he loves photographing dawn.
About Anthony Epes
Originally from California, Anthony has been living in London since 2000. Istanbul at Dawn is part of an ongoing series of projects on Cities at Dawn, and follows London at Dawn and Paris at Dawn (exhibited at St Pancras International and now both books) as well as Venice at Dawn. In 2014 Anthony exhibited his project on the Homeless World Cup, shot in Mexico City and Poznań.
Anthony’s projects have been covered on BBC World and CNN, in Condé Nast Traveller, Time Out, Atlas Obscura, Digital Photography Magazine, Hyper Allergic, French Photo Magazine, The Economist and many other publications.
Inspired by the Cities at Dawn series Anthony runs a series of photo workshops, taking intrepid city dwellers to explore the early morning streets of his favourite cities including London, Venice, Istanbul, Havana and Hong Kong.
Exhibition is part of the East End Film Festival, and kindly supported by Spitalfields Estate
