Eastern Anatolia, Turkey · 2016
Windward
The cold had got into her face the way it gets into everything up here, and she had stopped fighting it long ago.
This story imagines, it does not document. It is what the photograph made me feel.
A floral scarf wrapped close, a knit collar pulled up, snow blurred out behind her. She looked at me with her eyes slightly narrowed — against the light, against the wind, against a lifetime of both. Not unfriendly. Just a face that has spent a lifetime of winters outdoors and has nothing to hide from one more stranger.
There was the smallest amount of a smile at one corner. I have never been sure if it was for me or just the shape her mouth has settled into.
I did not pose her and I did not say much. We did not share more than a few words of the same language. I lifted the camera, she let me, and that was the whole of our agreement.
One frame, close. The lines around the eyes do most of the work.
— Sefa Yamak, Istanbul-based portrait photographer. Eastern Anatolia, winter 2016. From the ANATOLIA series.
Archival pigment print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308gsm · Signed & numbered on verso · Certificate of Authenticity included
If this photograph interests you, write to me directly. I'll answer any questions about print sizes, paper, and process. Studio visits in Istanbul are also available.