“I am from a very mixed background and Istanbul embodies so many facets of life, it's like a mini world. It's a city that came after a big empire, that covered a large area, that has thrived on multiculturalism, people cross-marrying, changing their religion. All the things we discuss now, in an urban setting, Istanbul has lived through in the past. I can almost smell that past when I'm there. Ideas of wealth, hierarchy, gentrification versus ghetto, the secular and the religious, are so extreme you see them in a clearer way. There's also the contrast between the ugly and the beautiful — the neoclassical, art deco and art nouveau look more beautiful, more authentic, alongside things that are super-ugly, newly and cheaply built.
“I can go to Istanbul 100…
