The North of Turkey

I’m 39 years old. Half of my life I’ve lived in USSR, another half in the world where USSR didn’t exist anymore. My world now is incomprehensible and unreal, as I was preparing to live in another type of place. I wish I could go back to get my bearings. When I found myself in Turkey, I realized that it needs to be photographed. Looking at the developed film I found that only the north of the country came out well. Majority of it was taken near the railroad of people mostly voting Republican People’s Party, membership slips in their jacket pockets. It’s possible that while crossing the Turkey by bus and train, taking predefined routes to certain destinations, I am trying to reconstruct USSR, a real country of the 70s, and an ideal post-war USSR of movies, of Vysotsky’s songs-poetry, of grandmother’s and grandfather’s memories.

Alex Melia 2012