REMEMBERING ISTANBUL
The room is suffocating. Its tight, cramped shelves, laden with vintage toys, lamps, and radios, peer reproachfully down at this intrusion. I breathe lightly for fear that even a slight stirring of air would send the weight of these memories crashing to the ground.
Many of the items in this wonder emporium of historical curios in Çukurcuma, Istanbul, are far older than me. They speak of another culture in another time. In the cold winter light, amid the redolent smells of cigars and burnt caramel, it is not difficult to imagine that these forgotten and neglected things are surly that a rapidly changing Turkey has left them behind, now no more than mere trinkets and baubles for curious travellers. Thick films of cobwebs and dust, and white, post-it sized notes shouting “Don’t Touch, Get Help!”, complete the illusion of solitude and abandonment.
This is what is left. This is how they live now.
Running Time: 3:54minutes
DOP/Editor: Yeo Kai Wen
Special Thanks: Miranda Yeo, Sarah Giam
© Yeo Kai Wen 2014. All Rights Reserved.