In Haste

Ayaküstü (In Haste) was photographed over four years across Istanbul. Ballerinas appear without warning in the metro, on ferries, in the backstreets of Galata, and along İstiklal Avenue in Taksim. Ballet, a Western performing art usually kept inside formal stages, meets the daily rush of the street. City and stage, passerby and spectator overlap.

A theatre tells its audience where to look and when: the lights go down, the curtain rises, and attention is agreed in advance. The street gives no instruction. Each passerby decides alone, in a second or two, whether to stop or keep walking, and that private decision is what the camera records.

Once the street becomes the stage, the roles inside the frame reverse. The public becomes the true performer of the image. Some faces show astonishment, curiosity, or hesitation. Others show nothing at all: a man keeps talking on his phone, people on a bench keep their conversation going, shoppers walk past a ballerina on pointe without turning their heads. Indifference is a reaction too, and the photographs give it the same attention as surprise. The dancers' composure sets them apart from the street, and that distance makes every response around them visible. The bodies that watch and the bodies that look away become the spectacle, while the city keeps its pace.

Carriages, piers, and platforms are built for passing through. People share them for a few minutes and have learned not to look at one another. A ballerina standing at a turnstile or on a ferry deck breaks that quiet agreement. The dance holds the gesture for a few seconds; the photograph measures how long the city looks back before moving on, or whether it looks at all.

The project was featured in the Turkish daily Radikal under the headline "Kentte bale zarafeti" ("Ballet's grace in the city").