shashasha

After finding photographs of her great-great aunt in Ortaköy at her father’s house, Swiss artist Françoise Caraco began a research project to find her ancestors in Istanbul, a quest that lead her to unveiling a hidden side of the Turkish capital. Through interviews and chance encounters, Caraco discovers glimpse of the Sephardic Jews who have lived, mostly unseen, in Istanbul for centuries.

Combining photographs of Istanbul’s cityscape, important Jewish landmarks, portraits, snapshots and diary-like photography with several longer interview texts, Caraco weaves a dense and fascinating story that connects her own family’s history with Istanbul’s Jewish community. With impeccable design, rendered in beautiful colors and written with nuance and sensibility, Françoise Caraco’s book “Hidden Istanbul” offers an insightful, invigorating portrait of a rarely seen city and demonstrates the existence of hidden parts of our world that only come into view from the right perspective.