14. Istanbul's Streets, Bridges, Hills, and Squares

"I obtained the photograph of Dolmabahçe pier in the background from a junk dealer. For three years before the novel was even finished, I visualized this box in my mind alongside the corresponding chapter. I am particularly fond of this box, which, despite all my sketching and designs, has been so receptive to the whims of uncalculated beauty. After many years of collecting objects, of visualizing and sketching cabinet layouts as if I were writing theatrical stage directions, we arranged cups of tea, Kütahya porcelain ashtrays, and Füsun’s hairclips inside the boxes through trial and error. Looking at the photographs we took during this process, I realized that I was doing what the Istanbul landscape painters I so admire also did: looking for an accidental beauty in the convergence of trees, electrical cables and pylons, ships, clouds, objects, and people. The greatest happiness is when the eye discovers beauty where neither the mind conceived of nor the hand intended any." (The Innocence of Objects by Orhan Pamuk)