A decade of touring musicians in Istanbul documented by Aylin Güngör

As editor-in-chief and art director at Istanbul music and culture magazine Bant Mag, Aylin Güngör has had access to a huge number of alternative and experimental touring musicians who have visited her city. Over the past decade, she's photographed artists like John Maus, Omar Souleyman, TV on the Radio, The Bug, and Hype Williams, the photos of which have been collected in a new book Oturduğum Yerden (From Where I Am).

Güngör's photographs don't capture the bands during live performances, nor are they portraits of the artists set up for professional photo shoots. Instead, they capture the bits in between – the slow, often mundane time spent waiting around, hanging out, or goofing off, reminscient of Wim Wenders' films, like The State of Things. Over email, Güngör explains that she finds herself drawn to "the real joyful and weird moments in my life, of my friends and people I enjoy being with" in her photography, as well as "awkward scenes in nature."

Speaking about the musician's take on Istanbul, Güngör says that "they mostly instantly fell in love and wanted to come back. Some did for holiday, and some are still planning. I don’t think any of them has a bad memory of their time in İstanbul, at least the ones that we hung out with. Just like the differences in their music styles, their taste of the city was different, and there was something for all of them, I guess."

Collecting the images into a book has been a way to put a full-stop to Güngör's decade-long project. "For sure, I would love to continue, and I do continue, but it really depends on how the next 10 years goes," she says, "I actually have a similar amount of photos of the Turkish local scene, so releasing a book on it might be the next interest for me."

The book is available now through Bant's website, and the magazine hope to tour the exhibition internationally in the future. You can browse a gallery of its images by clicking on any of the images above.