Turkish photographer and digital artist Aydin Büyüktas is an Ankara native who decided to give the former Ottoman Empire capital a new dimension: the surreal one. The city looks warped in a delightful series of cityscapes all placed in a collection called Flatland. The inspiration, says the artist, lies in the 1884 novella with the same name, depicting a two-dimensional world populated by geometric figures. But we like to call it Istanbul inception, after what we saw in the 2010 movie.
Flatland is an accurate depiction of how Istanbul looks like these days. It’s a combination of history and present, a mix of old and new. With the help of a drone, the artist photographed bridges, markets, football arenas, parks, highways and others, all at different levels and then sutured them together with a little help coming from the digital world. The final result is a beautiful and inspiring series of pictures without any visible line of horizon. This Istanbul cityscape collection makes you want to take a trip all the way there, touch the ground and see for yourself, because yes, Istanbul is special.
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The city may be far from perfect, but it certainly has a unique flavor attached to it. It has been there for centuries, changing the course of history for many generations of people. It’s with this Istanbul inception that the city gets a little change of perspective. We admire the ingenuous idea and respect the digital crafting skills required to complete it, this is majestic work. Aydin wanted to bring before our eyes the real Istanbul – twisted, colorful, a bit disproportionate, maybe gloomy, but wonderful nonetheless. For all those seeking an adventure for the soul, visit Istanbul, the city has so much to offer and these cityscapes prove it. But for now, gaze at its beauty and feel free to imagine a world upside down, where everything we call normal is bent and laughed at. This is what Aydin did in my eyes, and I can only see, because sometimes words are just fruitless.
