594 - Ephesus Ancient City
Today I explored two cities of completely different realities.
After spending a few days shooting Istanbul, it was time to head to the eastern region of Turkey. AKA… the lesser known part of the country. This was the part of this trip I was most excited about. Namely because I knew nothing about it.
Alara’s parents conveniently lived in a small town north of İzmir, so it was a perfect opportunity to meet them and see another side of Turkish culture. They also lived near several ancient roman cities, which were ripe for photography.
The first one on our list being the Ancient City of Ephesus- which was a several hour drive south. So naturally, we had to make a pit stop for tea along the way. But we weren’t heading to no Wawa.
The town we stopped in was called Kucukkoy, which directly translates to “Little Village.” And from a distance, it was very little. In fact, you couldn’t even see it from the main road.
So when Alara’s parents detoured us off the highway, I started questioning if our 9 month long relationship had just been a ploy to kidnap me in Turkey. Because where we were headed… didn’t look like civilization. It looked like an agricultural post-war zone.
Buildings were falling apart, the streets were deserted, and weeds were growing as far as the eye could see. My heart started beat a little faster- the middle of nowhere hits different when you’re in a foreign country.
We came to a slow park, and I was told the town square was right around the corner. If there was anyone else leading me here, I would have been questioning my life’s decisions. But I trusted Alara and her family- so I followed them into the abyss.
One step, two step, three. We rounded the corner and suddenly a busting city center came into view. Coffee shops, vendors, artists, and bakers. Cats, tourists, and beaming locals. All here- and I had nothing to worry about.
Phew. Mainlined a little culture shock there. That’s all.
After walking around for an hour or so, I came to the conclusion that this town was equivalent to any other small town- it was just very new. It almost felt like a bunch of people showed up to a random ghost town, said fuck it, and decided to rebuild the place from the inside out.
The only problem was unless you knew about this place from a local- i.e. Alara’s parents- you’d never think to look back here. From the outskirts, it looked deserted. What a strange thing.
(Alara's parents turned out to be the sweetest people too, very welcoming and patient with me as a foreigner!)
After snagging a few collectibles, downing a tea, and petting a cat or two, we were out.
The next two hour drive flew by, and before we knew it we’d arrived at the Ancient City of Ephesus.
And in case you didn’t know, Ephesus is one of the largest ancient Roman sites in the eastern Mediterranean. The main attraction was the Library of Celsus, which at one point held almost 12,000 scrolls. Much of the site has been carefully reconstructed from broken pieces, as the city was originally built in the 10th century BC.
One can only imagine the effect three thousand years of weathering, ages, and new rulers had on the place. Ironically, this city was the complete opposite of Kucukkoy- old on the inside and new on the outside.
The catch about this place is that ruin sites have always been notoriously difficult for me to shoot. My mind wants to default to architectural photography, which requires symmetry, straight lines, and uniform surfaces. Ancient ruins are anything but that, with the added challenge of tourists, ropes/signs, and active digging sites.
To put it simply, I despise shooting them. But like anything else, you have to lay down the bricks to enjoy the mansion. So here I am, practicing in the hopes that one day I’ll enjoy shooting these monstrosities of symmetry.
We rolled in a few hours before closing, aiming for a golden hour shoot. But the ancient Romans seemed intent on my downfall, because there wasn’t a single cloud in the sky. Perhaps they were projecting their own issues?
The place was blown to oblivion. Harsh, obtrusive light everywhere, and enough tourists that it felt like we were in a real city instead of an ancient one.
Alright, well you know the rules. When in doubt, start shooting small:
“Ancient Code”
Taken with Sony a7rIII + Sony 24-105mm f/4
[ISO 680 ~ 54mm ~ f/9 ~ 1/250s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
There was ancient Greek scripture in radical abundance, but that sliver had the biggest texture pop.
I tried to move up to a few medium level scenes, but nothing quite caught my eye. There were stone structures everywhere, but they all were so broken it was hard to piece any kind of coherent shot together. It felt like I was shooting 7 pieces of a 1,000 part jigsaw puzzle.
That was, until we hit the Library:
“Half a Library”
Taken with Sony a7rIII + Sony 24-105mm f/4
[ISO 800 ~ 62mm ~ f/5.6 ~ 1/800s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
A surprisingly congruent structure in the landscape of legos.
It’s mind baffling that they were able to pull this thing together, though. Like I said earlier, archeologists rebuilt the entire thing together from hundreds of different sources. And mind you, this is only the bottom half of it. I cropped the top half off because it was so blown out from the sunlight my mind couldn’t take it.
And speaking of tops cut off, here’s one of the statues up close, with its head cut off:
“Headless”
Taken with Sony a7rIII + Sony 24-105mm f/4
[ISO 800 ~ 103mm ~ f/10 ~ 1/250s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
Creepy, eh? I’ll add that one to my horror collection.
I decided to keep the shoot down to those three primary photos, because it felt like the closest thing I was going to get to a story in this land of random shapes.
So there you have it. Ancient City one of three complete- two more to go.
I’m on a mission to explore as much as humanely possible.
Want to see my progress? Check out the Adventure Map.
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