Istanbul: Light Thievery

Insert comment on Erdoğan’s nationalist project and situate photos within a larger global context of autocrats and the extremist religious environments which elevate them, not least of which is the US. (For no reason in particular, note that Erdoğan’s airbrushed face on propaganda billboards across town is a dead ringer for Kevin Spacey.) Opine on the compatibility of Islam and the contemporary world though I have no expertise on the subject. Don’t forget to mention the tired, false binary of the east and west. Wrap up by underlining that as a woman, my lens is female. That is, except when I quickly sidestepped a tween learning to shoot a rifle in an alley near the Bosphorous. Then, it was all my contact lenses and the reflexes of a Texas childhood.


These photos are actually just about waking up two years after a breakup and pandemic arrived in rapid succession. Divorce is a glorious gift, and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemies.