Balkon

Istanbul panoramas from the author of My Name Is Red

In the winter of 2011 Nobel Prize–winning Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk took 8,500 color photographs from his balcony with its panoramic view of Istanbul, the entrance of the Bosphorus, the old town, the Asian and European sides of the city, the surrounding hills and the distant islands and mountains. Sometimes he would leave his writing desk and follow the movements of the boats as they passed in front of his apartment and sailed away.

Pamuk has been taking photographs for more than 50 years, but as he obsessively created these images he felt his desire to do so was related to a strange particular mood he was experiencing. He photographed further and began to think about what was happening to himself: why was he taking these photos? How are seeing and photography related? What is the affinity between writing and seeing? Balkon presents almost 500 of these photos selected by Pamuk, who has also codesigned the book and written its introduction.