In celebration of Cornucopia's 30th year we would like to pull out a selection of beautiful spreads and graphics by our creative director Clive Crook. Celebrating 30 years of Cornucopia also means celebrating 30 years of collaboration with creative director Clive Crook. Here are some examples of his fine touch.
Above is the Yeşil Mosque with it's 'Turkish triangles', a hallmark of 15th century mosque architecture taken from The Big Issue on Bursa, number 38, 2007. Photograph by Jürgen Frank.
This stunning shot is of three men rowing is by Cafer Turkmen from the article Beyond the Euphrates. Cornucopia dedicated 30 pages to this expedition to the southeast and photo essay done in 1952, before tourism in Turkey. Issue 30, 2003. 'Travelling by train, truck, Jeep and mule, Turkmen discovered a place of dramatic beauty and a way of life barely changed for thousands of years.'
Another pair of images beautifully juxtaposed by Clive Crook.
'The artist of A Lady Drinking Coffee (right) is unknown, but the source of this Orientalist icon, a version of which was owned by Madame de Pompadour, would have been instantly familiar to 18th century French society. It was a widely published engraving by the Flemish Jean Baptiste G Vanmour, one of the few artists to have witnessed life at the Ottoman court at first hand.' Issue 33, 2005.
Carla Grissmann's story, told by Maureen Freely is of her travels in Anatolia and her book, Dinner of Herbs. 'Carla places herself in the background of almost every story she tells. At times she is no more than a pair of eyes.' Issue 24, 2001.
'One Persian account claims that on the fall of his capital, Nineveh, he set fire to himself, his concubines and his palace – a scene reimagined in Delacroix’s florid ‘Death of Sardanapalus’, now in the Louvre. The painting was the scandal of the 1827–28 Salon.' Rose Sheperd and Susana Raby go to the British Museum's exhibit, I am Ashurbanipal, King of the World, King of Assyria. Issue 58, 2018
From the same issue in 2018, Clive does a collage illustrating the reopening of Pandeli above the Egyptian Spice Market. Photos by Monica Fritz.
Berrin Torolsan's mastery of light is shown in her marvelous food still lifes in each issue. This photo is slightly untypical, taken from further away and Clive used the diagonal composition to it's favour in this double spread. Issue 51 in 2014.
This is another example of both graphics and photography: intentional minimalism resulting in pure elegance. Photo by Berrin Torolsan Issue 62, 2021.
'When Evliya (Çelebi) visited his uncle Melek Ahmed Pasha, vali (governor) of the eastern Anatolian province of Van, the book-loving Emir of Bitlis, Abdhal Khan, laid on a sumptuous feast for the two of them, which ended with no fewer than 50 hoşafs, served in crystal bowls, with precious spoons set with gems. No other dish is mentioned.'
And finally a sneak shot of a scene that will reappear in a Cornucoopia book later this year. 'In August 1981, a writer, a painter, a geographer and four donkeys set out on a 600-kilometre journey from the Sea of Marmara to the Mediterranean.' The identity of the man iin the cloth cap remains a mystery. Issue 62, 2021. Watch this space...