Istambul and São Paulo

I am reading the excelent "Istambul - Memories and the City" by Orhan Pamuk. On chapter five, named "Black and White", he writes: "Accustomed as I was to the semidarkness of our bleak museum house, I preferred being indoors. The streets below, the avenues beyond, the city´s poor neighborhoods seemed as dangerous as those in a black-and-white gangster film. And with this attraction to the shadow world, I have always preferred the winter to the summer in Istambul. I love the early evenings when autumn is slipping into winter, when the leafless trees are trembling in the north wind and people in black coats and jackets are rushing home through the darkening streets. I love the overwhelming melancholy when I look at the walls of old apartment buildings and the dark surfaces of neglected, unpainted, fallen-down wooden mansions; only in Istambul have I seen this texture, this shading".

Then there are dozens of pictures of Istambul in black and white, along the book.

I use to walk a lot in downtown São Paulo, on my way to the courthouses, where the old buildings go high and leave few space for the sunlight. I like it specially in the wintertime also, when the light that gets through is weak, with no much contrast, making it a beautiful scene to take pictures. Since I began taking pictures when I was like fifteen, I have liked black and white pictures. And that´s one of the reasons why the book caught my attention.

I have never been in Istambul, though I tried it once when I was in Europe in 1995, and felt Istambul was so close. Some years ago an Istambul native, friend Ali A., stayed in our home while visiting Brazil, and then I could talk and learn a little about the city.

I think about the many differences and similarities between the two cities. São Paulo has no Great Past like the one left by the Ottoman Empire and has no Bosphorus, that is so important to the function of the city and to the lives of the people. Here the "grandeur" of the City started with the coffee culture in late 19th and beginning of the 20th century, when the Ottoman Empire was going down. Here the many rivers that run through the city are abandoned and polluted. Both cities though are situated in "emerging countries" where modernity lived together with some poverty and both have lived economic crisis during the eighties to turn over to lead the country´s economy now.

Pamuk talks about a certain melancholy of the people in Istambul that he calls Hüzün. We brazilians also have a certain melancholy that came as a portuguese heritage, according to writer Moacyr Scliar in his book "Saturno nos Trópicos" (Saturn in the Tropics).

In this post I share some pictures I have taken in São Paulo, and wait friend Ali to tell us if he sees something that reminds him of Istambul. And else what do you prefer, the city in color or in black and white?