Hi all,

my name is Deniz. I’ve lived in London for many years, where I worked in an advertising agency. Just before I lost all my senses and creativity I decided to move back to Istanbul. Also, advertising, boyfriend and weather in England sucked. Might need to find a job here. I like photography, and hanging around in the darker places of the city, watching people and telling myself stories about them. Cheers and hope to meet some of you soon.

hi deniz...welcome to the forum...

is there anywhere we can see your work? i am a photographer//designer myself and i love to see what people are up to in london.also if you need anything(darkroom, photography materials, info about dark corners of the city etc.) just let me know..

welcome Mari-An,

that's interesting btw; as myself Utabe and coco are having lots of dark and deep photography discussions too......spent a very enojoyable day yesterday wandering around the Karakoy district taking photographs.......

....and dark Karaköy is extremely beautiful at this time of the year. Welcome Mari An and I wish you many good shots.

guys you need to let me know of your trips...love to join the action..

Welcome. The city does have some great dark corners for photography and people watching, from freaks to the less freaky (was in Eminonu waiting for ferry so can see the faces floating around me like a crowd of golums)

Mari An,

Welcome to the forum. In case you're having a hard time finding dark places, or growing bored of the same dark locations, you stumbled into the right place. Plenty of mushrooms here.

Good luck with your job search and I'm sure you'll enjoy Ist and the friends here.

Ah, a photo community, thanks all for your replies. Gece, I don't know what people are up to in London. Big question. The creative people are leaving the town, to Berlin, Moscow, and I heard also Istanbul (well, I'm here). Setting up a flickr page for my photos is a project I'm thinking about, thinking....

Any further hints regarding the darkest places of Istanbul are very welcome.

Welcome. I can't take decent photos for toffee but am ever hopeful that I will one day (without making any extra effort whatsoever). Enjoy being back in the city.

Welcome Deniz

I don't even have a camera, but love loking at photos taken by others. Have fun her (and Utube I am sure "dark Karaköy" is n other alliteration)

Schnickschnack, jolly jonathon: chaotic Karaköy.....hhmm....lovely Levent, snobby Bebek, boring Bodrum. Just n other alliteration for you.

Welcome Deniz.

There are a number of keen photographers on this site and Istanbul is a very photogenic city. Thanks to Ara Guler, it also has a fantastic photographic heritage. May well be worth getting a photography section of the site (or at least a photography thread) going...

To answer your question, if you want dark and brooding, I would go for armutlu, tarla or tepebasi, fener/balat following the old city walls, or some of the old places along the asian side: think Uskudar towards the black sea along the Bosphorous but away from yalli-ville.

If you want real dark (in a literal sense as well) and brooding with history and atmos then try the winding streets going from Beyazit to Eminonu at night when they are empty, after about 9 there is virtually no one around (may not be advisable for a woman) but the atmos is great (spent my first night in Istanbul wandering around there with no map on a mid-winter night and was great experience)

Beyazit...Beyazit, where is it again? Been taking photos in Eyüp a couple of times, love the little graveyard there. Jonathan, I have an old Leica I can lend you, if you wanna join a photo excursion. Good for good pictures.

watch out boys and girls, we've got competition here.....

anyone who has a "spare Leica" has to be taken seriously!!