The scrap metal collection depot hosted huge piles of mixed metal parts. On one side the twisted rebar lay in tangled balls playfully rolled up with the deft movements of a huge claw controlled by our friend sitting in the crane cabin. Upon an unsorted nest of scrap was an old exhaust pipe looking out of place. The millions of cars which clog the roads in this vast city of 20 million eventually find their way to places like this awaiting reincarnation.

Watercolour

A study in watercolour of a pile of forgotten notes thrust onto a nail in a workshop in Istanbul

Forgotten Scribbles

The spare parts depot hosted huge piles of mixed metal parts. The parts millions of cars which clog the roads in this vast city of 20 million eventually find their way to places like this being used as spares for older vehicles.

Abtract obsolescence

The old Chevrolet lay mouldering away amidst the rusting hulks of less elgant vehicles. Once the favoured model for Istanbul taxis, Chevrolets are either being renovated or left to rot as time overtakes them. Watercolour on 400gm paper

Chevrolet

The 'bobinajci' reconditions power tools. In many places burnt out power tools are thrown away, in Karaköy (old Istanbul) they're brought to craftsmen who rewind copperwire inside the motor cores. In the corner of this busy workshop the wastbin sits unnoticed, unemptied and awaiting attention. A watercolour on 400gram paper

Dustpan and brush

The spare parts scrap depot was on the outskirts of the city in an idyllic valley. The piles of car parts lived through the fours seasons and ripened with age. The exhausts lay piled in the sun.

Exahausts

The Arab mosque in Karaköy (old Istanbul) resembles some a church building. Its complex history started with an early invading Islamic army from the mists of Byzantine history which was then replaced by a church and then switched back to being a mosque. The surrounding craftsmen and porters file in to pray namaz. Before entering to pray it appears that they put out their cigarettes around this particular drain cover...

A Smoke before prayer

The picture is a study of the side of a wooden rope housing lying around the boat repair shops in historic Karaköy on the shores of the Golden Horn in old Istanbul.

Gebze

The ceaseless rhythm of a press resounded from the floor above adding atmosphere and audio to the dark basement  which hosted thousands of motor parts. They were carefully catalogued and ordered ready for one of the oil smeared workers to locate and dispatch to the counter. There waited busy mechanics in urgent need of some auto-part. In the corner at the back on a greasy worktop waited a can of oil and some old rags.

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Ewen MacDonald

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