At the macro level, the structure of a city has always seemed much cleaner and more organised than when you get in it – there’s a sort of fractal perfection of the wimmelbild kind where the overall visual density is quite homogenous within all of the areas that can be build upon. It’s as though we seek to fill and exploit every possible space available to us – and in doing so, make something that’s always reminded me of a carpet or a lawn: from a distance, regular, but close up, completely random. I’m sure if we were to take the site of any of the world’s major cities and start again, the result would be extremely different from what we have now (and in some cases, perhaps wouldn’t exist at all – building below sea level, for instance, is probably not a such a good idea in the long run). At a more pragmatic level, we never quite made it to the far side of the strait – next time…MT
This series was shot with a Hasselblad H6D-100c, various lenses and post processed with Photoshop Workflow III.
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Ultraprints from this series are available on request here
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More info on Hasselblad cameras and lenses can be found here.
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Images and content copyright Ming Thein | mingthein.com 2012 onwards unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved
Ming Thein | Photographer 
As usual, your photographs are magnificent. Do you remember which lenses you carried? Do you routinely use a tripod for trips such as this.
I too have some ambivalence about Istanbul.
tim hyde
50, 100 and 150 – and no tripod. That was my idea of ‘going light’ 😛
So when is the workshop in Istanbul 🙂
Thank you for the excellent photos.
I returned from Istanbul late October and my feeling about it is quite different. The Istanbul I used to love is not there anymore. I wrote a post from the discomfort one can feel there for various reasons, if links are allowed here is the link to my post with different feeling photographs:
https://www.keptlight.com/discomfort-of-istanbul/
Fair points. I think without the previous historical context in your case – this was my first visit – I don’t have a point of reference to compare. I do agree in general that places just aren’t the same anymore around the world due to the averaging effects of globalization…
There are many factors involved. Suffice it to say that many of the new buildings are empty! And, they are stunningly ugly! Even a friend who is a professor of architecture agrees with that. Thank you for allowing the link to remain, not for traffic but for a different view of the city.
Philosophy is always welcome 🙂
Impressive capture.
Istanbul is heaven for photography!
Thanks a lot for sharing Ming!
John Görten
Yes – there are opportunities for every kind of photography; Istanbul is a very ‘target-rich’ environment…
Spectacular photos!
Thank you!
lovely views of the city
Thanks!
Thank you very much for posting these beautiful photographs. You don’t seem to care too much about a one-third-two thirds rule regarding the horizon height in your compositions. Do you think that rule has some relevance to it at all? Kind regards
Thanks. I compose according to the shape of my subject and the arrangement of other elements…institutionalized ‘rules’ don’t make a lot of sense in the creative arts. 🙂
Splendeurs passée, avenir radieux ?
Telle est la question…
Beautifull !
Merci!
Stunning! Makes me want to go out and take some shots again.
Practice is always necessary for the creation of images 🙂
Beautifully done as usual. These bring back nice memories.
Thanks!
You’re welcome.