Helio Leon: “The Purple Room” – Reliving Istanbul Memories

Helio Leon is a photographer and filmmaker based in Dublin, his documentary and autobiographical work has been screened and exhibited at various venues and festivals around the world, such as Noorderlicht, Krakow Photo Month, Slideluck Tokyo, Photo Kathmandu, Landskrona and Marfa Open, in Texas.

Turkey –                               THIS STORY CONTAINS EXPLICIT CONTENT


“This is the story about when I came back to Istanbul, the city where I had been happy when I was 20. I came back with a strong mourning inside me and I found that the city had been destroyed along with my dreams, reality was striped, as the wounds of the city were intensely reflecting my own wounds and fears, my feelings of being in a dead end, as well as my issues with love and intimacy.

The connection with the city has always been very strong, as if I’d been there in another life, as if my imagination could take shape in reality, that was provoking a cocktail of feelings in me, excited by the call of the city, by its shadows and its pride, its wonderful noises, its mythical people, my people.”


Photography & Written by Helio Leon

Purple_Room_26



Related Posts

Kate Nolan: Neither

Ireland –  Neither is an exploration into the dreams and fears of young women in Kaliningrad – an isolated Russian region ...

Koji Takiguchi: “Sou” – Celebration of Death in the Family

Japan –  Published by Little Big Man Books, Japan, Photography feature – Koji Takiguchi‘s images document his wife and her ...

Kentaro Takahashi The Riverbed

Kentaro Takahashi: Reminders Photography Stronghold Grant Announced

Japan –  “The flowing river never stops and yet the water never stays the same.” —Kamo No Chomei, “My Ten-Foot ...

Rafal Milach: The Winners

Belarus –  ‘The Winners’ published by GOST, is dedicated to winners of various state and local competitions held between 2010-2013 ...

Asako Narahashi: Ever After

Japan –   In Narahashi’s previous photobook, ‘Half Awake and Half Asleep in the Water’, (published in 2007 by Nazraeli ...

Tanya Habjouqa: Occupied Pleasures of Palestine

Palestine –   Occupied Pleasures, from Gaza and across the Occupied Territories, was taken just last summer. It explored how ...

Thabiso Sekgala : Second Transition

South Africa –  ‘Second Transition’ is the series of images that I’ve photographed in the areas around the mining town ...

Manik Katyal on Nicolo Degiorgis “Hidden Islam”

Italy – Winner of Author Book Award 2014 at the Rencontres d’Arles, self-published book ‘Hidden Islam’ by Fabrica graduate, Photography feature ...

Thomas Mailaender: “Illustrated People” – 23 Original Negatives, Powerful UV Lamp and Painful-Looking Skin-Based Photos

France –  “Illustrated People” is the translation into book form of a performance by Thomas Mailaender. He applied to the ...