Photo exhibition: Tarlabaşı: On the Edge of Transformation

Photo exhibition: Tarlabaşı: On the Edge of Transformation

Sedef Özge, Jivan Güner, Meltem Ulusoy

With fotos of: Jivan Güner, Meltem Ulusoy, Sedef Özge

Istanbul is going through a huge urban transformation process. Neighborhoods located in the historical peninsula and touristic districts were one by one torn down to give way to luxury residential buildings and shopping centers
under the »gentrification« process. Tarlabaşı, located in the heart of Beyoğlu, Istanbul, was chosen to become the »Champs-Elysees of Istanbul« in 2007. Formerly a residential area for the Greek and Armenian populations
and later for the Romany people and Kurds fl eeing the burnt villages in Eastern Anatolia, Tarlabaşı is a lively neighborhood incorporating various cultures and life styles. As the historical buildings in the area were not allowed for
renovation, the eighborhood became a center of attraction for the underrepresented populations like the unemployed, sex workers, transvestites, recyclers, illegal migrants, etc. with its low rents. The Tarlabaşı urban transformation project was promoted as a way of »sterilizing« Beyoğlu, removing »drug dealers, thieves, transvestites, homeless people« and integrating the area »back« into Beyoğlu as a touristic center. The project included luxury residential buildings, hotels, and multi-storey car parks to be built in an area incorporating 278 buildings. All the families living and working in these buildings were forced to move to the outskirts of the city or return to their villages. Th e whole area was covered with aluminum walls and the buildings were then torn down.

Jivan Güner, Meltem Ulusoy and Sedef Özge photographed the area after the urban transformation project was initiated, and just before the buildings were completely torn down behind huge aluminum walls. Th ey spent months in the neighborhood, relating with the locals, capturing the lively streets outside borders of the urban transformation area, and the melancholy of the evacuated buildings. Many people have lost their homes and work, and been forced to live under harsher conditions in the evacuation process. Once the project is completed and »gentrification« penetrates into Tarlabaşı, the rest of the neighborhood will also go under a radical change. One of the last instances of
the neighborhood culture in Istanbul will become history.

Sedef Özge

Sedef Özge was born in 1973 in Ankara. She holds BA and MA degrees in Sociology. She has participated in the Photojournalism Program in Galata Fotoğrafhanesi Academy of Photography in  2011–2013. She worked with coachmen and their horses for five months in Istanbul, and her resulting project titled The Coachman was exhibited in Istanbul and Diyarbakir. She has worked as a photojournalist and reporter for Ajans Tabloid online news portal. She is currently working as a freelance translator and keeps shooting photo-stories.

Jivan Güner

Jivan Güner, born in 1990 in Istanbul. She has participated in the Photojournalism Program in Galata Fotoğrafhanesi Academy of Photography in 2011–2013. Her photos were exhibited as part of the »Orient Express, Kars, Ani« exhibition and in UNIFOTOFEST Student Photographers’ Festival under the title »Tarlabaşı : Let Us Live!«. She worked in Dicle News Agency (DIHA) as reporter. Her documentary photo project »Nomads« was exhibited in December 2012 in the Photography Foundation Gallery, Istanbul. She has worked as a photojournalist and reporter for Ajans Tabloid online news portal. She is currently studying Journalism in Marmara University Faculty of Communications in the fourth grade and working as a trainee photographer for European Pressphoto Agency (EPA).

Meltem Ulusoy

Meltem Ulusoy, born in 1979 in Manisa. She finished Department of Geophysical Engineering in Kocaeli University in 2000. She worked as an Editorial Coordinator in a journal of Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects. She produced news on Artistic Events in architectural magazines (Portfolyo and Yapi). She has participated in the Photojournalism Program in Galata Fotoğrafhanesi Academy of Photography in 2011–2013.
She has worked as a photojournalist and reporter for Ajans Tabloid online news portal. She is currently working as a freelance graphic designer. She keeps photographing the unprivileged segments of the society.