A historian could talk for weeks about the Turkish city of Mardin, located in the country’s southeastern corner not far from the Tigris River. But in this post, I only want to say a word about one of its more recent inhabitants. Her name is Reyyan, and when we met in 2017, she was three […]
A Calm Evening In A Turbulent City (Diyarbakir, Turkey)
Seen from the moon, Diyarbakir must look small, like every other city on Earth must look small. Located in southeastern Turkey, a little more than 900 miles from Istanbul, the ancient heart of Diyarbakir has a wall around it — a relatively famous wall in fact, as far as city walls go. It stretches 5.8 […]
A Snowman Architect In Istanbul
In the historic Sultanahmet district of Istanbul, in that open space between the Aya Sofia and the Blue Mosque, I have many memories. My first time backpacking — a three-week trip through Turkey and Greece in 1997 — ended here. So did a 14-month trip from Beijing to Istanbul in late 2004. And in between […]
Voices: Rose from Aleppo, Syria
I met Rose on June 24, 2010. It was a beautiful sunny morning in Aleppo, Syria, and I was photographing in the plaza beneath the historic citadel when a young woman entering the plaza caught my eye. She had style and confidence, and I liked the colors she was wearing. She said yes when I […]