Photographer Francesca Dal Chele is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this documentary photography. From the project ‘That Noise on the horizon?’. To see Francesca ’s body of work, click on any photograph.

Hidir at home. Hidir and his wife Gül, Kurds from Gaziantep, have lived here for 39 years and raised six children. Tarlabasi 2017

Inside Gül and Hidir’s modest lodgings in a decaying two-story building next to the Tarlabasi 360 construction site.Istanbul 2017

Tarlabaşı is a decaying, stigmatized zone in the heart of Istanbul next to Taksim Square. A concentrate of all the problems poverty creates: crime, drugs, prostitution, gray economy. But located in the heart of historic Istanbul, Tarlabaşı was targeted for urban regeneration in 2007 by the local and national governments allied with real estate developers avid for tremendous profits. That Noise on the horizon?, takes a critical look at State-led gentrification, one more emanation of neoliberalism. I question the impact on Tarlabaşı and on its disempowered residents of a controversial urban regeneration program, Tarlabaşı 360, aimed at attracting foreign investors and creating a “New Tarlabaşı” for the affluent.

Tarlabaşı was not always seedy. Formerly, this cosmopolitan neighborhood – its residents predominantly Greek, Armenian and Jewish – was middle-class and neat. A dramatic series of events from 1915 to 1974 resulted in almost all of these residents fleeing or being forced to leave. Tarlabaşı began its uninterrupted slide into pauperization.

Tarlabaşı 360 is radically changing the urban and humane fabrics of this historical neighborhood. “Regenerating” the urban fabric of the 1920-30s by destroying it, while saving a few façades to insert in the new buildings as proof of respect. “Regenerating” the current “undesirable” population by forcing them out to the fringes of Istanbul, far from their networks of friends and solidarity. The project includes no social housing, not profitable enough. So goes gentrification, a worldwide phenomenon and a personal disaster for the vulnerable.

A man preparing mussels to be stuffed, an important activity of Tarlabasi’s gray economy. Istanbul 2015

Along Kalyoncu Kulugu Sokak. For the poor of Tarlabasi, the poverty line resembles a glass ceiling. Istanbul 2022

Sacks of Black Sea mussels. The morning air in Tarlabasi is already heavy with the odor of mussels cooking. Istanbul 2022

Three transgender female sex workers, Tarlabasi 2022

In 2014, Phase 1 of the program had already emptied an area of 20.000 square meters of its residents, demolished an important part of the buildings and transformed others into urban ruins.

I began to engage with people living in the streets neighboring the fenced-off construction site: Kurdish families who fled their destroyed villages in the 1980s, delinquents, cis- and transgender prostitutes, Syrian refugees. The next ones to be sent away if Phase 2 is undertaken. Naturally, I photographed the controversial program – still unfinished in October 2023 although originally meant to be completed by 2016. But above all, my work is about the bruised people of Tarlabaşı.

The horizon is absent in my pictures, as it is in their lives. The colors are desaturated, and a dark halo encloses the images, reflecting the fatigue of Tarlabaşı and the no-perspective future of it’s residents. In the words of the novelist Ahmet Ümit, “Men and women born into the wrong lives as the wrong people”.

The back entrance to the Tarlabasi 360 construction site. In the background, decaying buildings in Cukur Sokak. Istanbul 2014

Kuçuk Kirlangic Sokak in the Tarlabasi 360 construction site, Istanbul 2023

Art Deco building expropriated for the Tarlabasi 360 urban regeneration project, Istanbul 2015

Artist’s statement 

In most of my photography work, I combine a critical documentary approach with an intuitive one. My aim is creating images that stimulate the spectator’s capacity to reflect on the issues questioned in my pictures. 

My work is driven by societal themes (identity, integration) and political themes (globalized neoliberalism, it's devastating effects on urban fabric, the environment and the deepening of inequalities). Since 2007, I have been examining in Turkey (Anatolia and Istanbul) the standardization of cities, urban sprawl and gentrification. This long-term project produced a trilogy: From Turkish Delight to Concrete (2007-2010); The Future Perfect (2011-2014) and That Noise on the Horizon? (2014-2023). 

Without undue ingenuity over the power of images to halt the damage and injustices they denounce, I am nevertheless profoundly convinced that photography is an important vector for raising awareness about the social and political issues at stake in the world around us. An important vector, too, for paying homage to the people our neoliberal societies leave by the wayside and prefer we not see. Enabling their recognition is the most powerful of tributes.

All images and text © Francesca Dal Chele