In this blog series, the photographer Lynn Gilbert takes us on a journey through Turkish homes.
Huge kitchens like in the above photograph are found in old stone houses in remote areas of Çamlıhemşin, built high in the mountains by Russian refugees in the early 20th century. They were often successful bakers and one of them, a baker to the Tsar, went on to open a renowned bakery in Ankara. (In Cornucopia 12, Patricia Daunt visits a home in Çamlıhemşin and shares a family’s memories of a Chekhovian rural life.)
A formal dining room in a traditional Turkish home is almost unique. In nearly a decade of photographing houses throughout the country, I can’t recall ever seeing anything like this. Rooms in which meals are served are multi-purpose. Most of the time, the midday meal is eaten around a huge round tray, sometimes made out of metal, sometimes a large wooden tabletop, positioned on a low pedestal. This low cocktail table can fit up to 10 people. Some sit on the banquette, others on the floor – rugs and large pieces of fabric are used to catch any food that might drop. People are absolutely meticulous about protecting their rugs. You never ever go into a house with shoes on. The owners provide house shoes if you want, but I always just wear my own socks.
The gigantic blackened arch-framed stonewall, with two smaller alcoves below it, was used as the cooking area. The what-appears-to-be ‘moss’ on the room’s surface is actually just the light reflecting of a green globe.
From the outside, this house looks weathered, fragile, as if it might collapse – and to step inside would certainly not be safe. But once inside, the interior looks solid and clearly built to stand for many more years.
This designer touch is reflected in the rest of the house, each of the large rooms painstakingly cared for and beautifully composed like a painting. I photographed the lady of the house with her back to the glorious view of the mountains, leaning on a table with a plastic cover, peeling beans.
These images are part of a selection of photographs that will be displayed at the ‘Along the Silk Roads’ exhibition, which opens in October at the Queens College, Godwin-Ternbach Museum, in New York.
Lynn Gilbert, an established photographer, has been fascinated with people’s living environments since her early teens. Visiting 60 countries in six decades, she has seen more than 3,000 houses and 20,000 rooms. In her nine extended trips to Turkey, Gilbert became fascinated with the unique quality of the Turkish home. Her photographic study documents – for the first time – the beautiful old houses, both humble and affluent, that form part of Turkey’s cultural heritage. Please visit her website for more photographs.
Copyright Lynn Gilbert.