ITU A|Z • Vol 16 No 2 • July 2019 • 91-103 Towards a critical delineation of waterfront: Aerial photographs as evidence and record in

Gökçen ERKILIÇ1 , Ipek AKPINAR2 1 [email protected] • Department of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture, İstanbul Technical University, İstanbul, 2 [email protected] • Department of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture, İstanbul Technical University, İstanbul, Turkey

Received: December 2018 • Final Acceptance: May 2019

Abstract This paper develops a conceptual agenda and a critical cartographic methodology using aerial photographs to monitor the shaping of waterfront as a geography in Istanbul by humans. Starting from the first aerial photographs of Istanbul until present, the gaze of the vertical dimension in geographical space holds divergent evidences of spatial transformation captured in aerial views. From construction sites to building of coastal roads, demolishing of port scapes and technological rifts of logistic flows, to large infills in longshore space; events and moments of spatial deformation of coastal space become visible and evident through aerial photography. Aerial gaze, when considered within an archeology of a developing military reconnaissance technology, is presented as an ironic tool to shed light to evidences and historical record of spatial transformation within an act of witnessing. Viewing coastal unfixity through aerial photographs are argued here to provide two different temporalities: longue and court dureé which operate in the eventual and geological time. As these photographs unveil, the material - geological body of the waterfront itself becomes the bearer of historical records of human and nonhuman relations that shape the coastal geography. The ground beneath is unfixed as it is pulled into a cartographic questioning tool of “critical delineation” of Istanbul’s waterfront. In the end, the waterfront is re-conceptualized and monitored as a dynamic geography. With this gaze, this paper suggests a debunking of oppositions of land and sea space to reframe the waterfront as an urban edge in the process of urbanization.

Keywords doi: 10.5505/itujfa.2019.36097 doi: Waterfront, Aerial photography, Critical cartography, Critique of urbanization. 92

1. Introduction with the planet. In that respect the In the past hundred years of role of aerial photography is discussed lifespan, the evolution of Istanbul from with a new temporal framework that being a city with a port at its center is surfaced within the aerial gaze to a megapolis, followed a spatial looking at transformation through expansion and an increase in the scale photographs. Conceptually this new and pace of urban transformations gaze is depicted with the temporal (Güvenç, 2017; Keyder, 2013). The concepts of the longue dureé and the process of urbanization is mapped court dureé as coined by Fernand as a phenomenon belonging to the Braudel (1996). terrestrial growth and the shaping With this theoretical framework, of the coast resides in the narratives this paper initiates a quest for the of history or urban transformation. waterfront rendered as a human Within the flood of literature on shaped geography in planetary space Istanbul as a city surrounded by waters; and it frames the representational the inherent geographical uniqueness foundations by the engagement of of the shoreline was best described the images of urban transformation, as the uniqueness of its geography of aerial photographs, in particular. The a “long strait, a narrow gulf, and an paper argues that the images of aerial enclosed sea” which it recognized at photographs can be used as a critical tool first sight in maps (Calvino, 2013). not only to visualize and to document The phenomenon waterfront as an the urban transformation, but also to edge to the surrounding water bodies grasp the city and develop a critique for is often studied inherently as a place of radical urban transformation. In other development and spread of capitalism, words, photographs can play a critical via trade, globalization and the role in the production of urban visual networked spaces (Meyer, 1999; Desfor culture and have impact on theorizing & Laidley, 2011; Güvenç, 2016). In the the urban representations. Re-thinking increased need of reframing human the coastline as a space, the paper offers imprint in the context of urbanization an alternative way to follow traces of it becomes more urgent to put the urbanization in Istanbul, in particular. human question in the alterations of The representation of rapid urban urban space. Is there another way to transformation of Istanbul’s waterfront render waterfront? To what extent can through aerial photographs depicts the waterfront be re-read as urban edge? critical role of airborne viewing. This In 21st century, Henri Lefebvre’s paper, based on the representation works have been inspirational for re- of urban space by aerial photographs reading the urbanization processes. focuses on how the coastal space was And his term of “planetary space” has transformed and was unfixed despite been a departure point for re-defining it is often delineated and mapped as waterfront as urban edge (Lefebvre, a fixed line. An alternative way can 1991[1974]). In this context, the urban unveil the urban transformation of the edge as a material and cartographic coastal space beyond the conventional fold can be also read referring to mapping techniques, and challenge Gilles Deleuze (2006); in this regard, the way we have grasped the built an element of the geological time environment. In other words, aerial and the impact of human imprint on photography can be seen as a new earth is developed further by Manuel narrative to tell the story of coastal DeLanda (2000). A recent discussion change in the processes of urbanization. of the intrusion of the question over As this paper presents, delineation human and nonhuman ontology by is a hybrid cartographic-conceptual Bruno Latour (1993, 2004, 2005) has methodology that represents the paved way to set up new relations shaping and re-shaping of Istanbul’s between land-sea, humans and non- waterfront by human imprint. humans on waterfront as an edge. In The paper first depicts the waterfront the light of recent studies, the coastal as a human shaped urban edge and space calls for a broader temporality draws a brief conceptual background. to understand the relation of humans Secondly, it gives a methodological

ITU A|Z • Vol 16 No 2 • July 2019 • G. Erkılıç, I. Akpınar 93 framework for the precedent use rendering, the coastlines marking of the aerial photography and its the waterfront, coastlines can be potential adaptations to urban studies. considered as dynamic lines of It evaluates the potential function growth between land and the sea, of aerial surveillance as evidence to and can illustrate material formation discover historical record in viewing in the matter of space as a planetary urban transformations in Istanbul, phenomenon. The line splitting the in particular. Thirdly, it explores the land and sea as a cartographic tool, spatial stories of elevating from the can become a visual tool to perceive, ground in Istanbul starting from the document and grasp the un-ending first aerial photographs of Istanbul shot transformation, in other words in early twentieth century until present unfixity of waterfront in the context of satellite imagery by covering a span of planetary space and urbanization. the historical generation and evolution The unending transformation, in of airborne photograph technologies. other words unfixity of waterfront in It reads photographs of waterfront the context of planetary urbanization” under construction and looks at – as pronounced by Henri Lefebvre spatial transformations to reframe (2003 [1970]) has been inspirational coastline as geographical and material for further studies. With the term phenomenon of the historical record. of planetary urbanization, Lefebvre Finally, evaluating the presented develops a holistic understanding conceptual and cartographic roots, it vis-à-vis global urban developments, presents a cartographic methodology and depicts the radical urban that uses the drawing of coastlines of developments and transformation in waterfront by using aerial photographs macro-scale. (Brenner & Elden, 2009; in order to derive conclusions to Lefebvre, 2003[1970]). With planetary what the study aims towards a critical urbanization, Lefebvre develops a delineation of waterfront. holistic understanding vis-à-vis global This tentative research can give a urban developments, and depicts broader understanding of the role of the radical urban developments and aerial photography in grasping the transformation in macro-scale. In the urban transformation in Istanbul, and context of the “planetary urbanization”, in general. the society’s complete urbanization pushes the boundary of the urban 2. Waterfront as a human shaped to unprecedented geographies urban edge in the context of over the planet from remote to planetary space densely urbanized areas (Lefebvre, Before going into the main 2003[1970]). This generates spatial arguments of the discussed roles of tensions of endlessness and questions representations of urbanization at the concerning what is urban on the planet context of waterfront through aerial require further attention in the field photographs, a potential theoretical of “critique of urbanization” (Brenner, discussion is briefly presented by 2014, 2016). introducing the concept of “planetary As a matter of fact, Lefebvre has space” (Lefebvre, 2003[1970]) and its been the first to see space as both; as potential contextualization to the act at once the ‘medium and outcome’ of of “humans” shaping urban space. social life (Lefebvre, 1991[1974]). In Afterwards, the representations of other words, for Lefebvre, “space was waterfront through aerial photographs produced socially as social reality was are going to be discussed as a heavily influenced by spatial relations” methodology to monitor processes as depicted by Hilde Heynen (2013). In urbanization. Aiming to arrive finally, Lefebvre’s formulation, “the production at a possible question of what role can of space” did not simply point at a spatial representations of urbanization physical production; but included have in order to link the theoretical a multiplicity of physical and non- framework of Lefebvre’s planetary physical layers - including everyday space in the context of waterfront. practices and lived experiences. In Starting with a cartographic this regard, the built environment was

Towards a critical delineation of waterfront: Aerial photographs as evidence and record in Istanbul 94 far from being an end product. It was geography, this paper underlines continuously re-produced in everyday that the theoretical confrontations of life; through each particular use, urban and nature calls for a debunking experience or remembrance. Spatial of oppositions among humans and production included images, dreams, geography. As a different theoretical memories, mentalities and ideologies. basis, suggestions of nature-culture And, its representation expects a new continuums blur the borders between challenge. And, the costal line is an axis urban and non-urban, going beyond in un-ending experience between land- thinking of humans in isolation from sea and humans and living beings. all nonhuman others (Latour, 1993, In this regard, geographical 2004, 2005). Bruno Latour critically boundaries have exceeded what rethinks about the relations between was drawn on the map; the urban nature and the built environment, and transformation plays an important his positioning paves way for a critical role beyond the conventional discussion in the field of urbanization representation techniques, and and its representation. In the macro redefines the boundaries between land scale, his new conceptualization for and sea. Researchers (Lefebvre, 2006; geological space and its formation Virilio,1984; Grosz, 2001) indicate in time brings together both the how the borders have been shaped and urban form and the nonlinear time reshaped in the everyday life as well as are fold and unfold them together. the alternative what have challenged The transformation of the coastal the urban context. The space, which contours can be re-read with a non- doesn’t have own boundaries, linear historiography focusing on the receives and takes on the form of scale and the pace. This new reading the outside – as depicted by Grosz: can bring together “nonlinear” time The in-between space is not only a and history – which is geological and space externally bound, where the elemental for grasping of time concept relationships between fixed identities for humans (DeLanda, 2000). and entities are conceived, but also The changing of the geography the space of movement, development of waterfront can be also viewed as and becoming (Grosz, 2001; s.91, 93). a political-economic basis. In this In this regard, Brian Massumi states regard, it is important to remind the that borders are generated in the term “spatial fix” – as depicted by transition. Only in the relationship David Harvey (1996). The term is used with the other, the border goes beyond to coin the stability that structures of being immobility and static. Massumi transportation and mobility (ports, underscores that “boundaries are only airports, railway stations, etc.) which produced in the process of passage: needed fixations in urban geography boundaries do not so much define the to become infrastructures that routes of passage; it is movement that perpetually demolish the previous defines and constitutes boundaries” structures (Harvey, 1996). Waterfront (Grosz, 2001; p.65). In this regard, is inherently a place of development Heynen claims that “a mutual relation and spread of capitalism, via trade, is created between the new concept of globalization and the networked spaces. space and a social reality that is also This positions waterfront as an urban characterized by interpenetration in edge under the dynamics of the spatial many areas” (Heynen, 2011, p.54). fix of geography, paradoxically creating The coastal border / edge has been an unfixity of the physical space as shaped and re-shaped by overlapping defined in this paper through perpetual of different borders in time. demolishing and construction of Beyond the theoretical overlook coastal interfaces. The examples of the of spatial theories of urban edge, the never ending waterfront developments, shaping of waterfront calls for a closer re-appropriation of port areas, look to role of humans in relation to the transformation of industrial sites along so called nature or planet. For a broader the waterfront of other metropolises discussion, on a possible translation of of the world draws a similar scenery “planetary space” into a human-shaped of coastal dynamics of transforming

ITU A|Z • Vol 16 No 2 • July 2019 • G. Erkılıç, I. Akpınar 95

waterfronts. As a delineation, the urban evolution and change in the city. paradox of spatial fix and material Delineation of the coastlines, as the unfixity is discussed along the presented methodology of this paper geography of Istanbul, in particular, follows aerial photographs as evidences with its own cases of transformation. of spatial transformation that yields In the light of theoretical framework an open ended cartography of the on the urban edge, aerial photographs waterfront transformation in “longue depict the urban identity, urban dureé” (Braudel, 1996). Within the experience via common notions, but longue dureé temporality, it is important also challenge common notions of our to recall that the passing of time can urban existence. Against the linear, become visible through monitoring the conventional map making techniques, urban space. As “urban forms tend to aerial photography is an important change very slowly” and daily rhythms axis in the urban representation – give the impact to them; while it is an which welcomes us to re-think about “act of design” when this urban form our city and her daily life. What makes “witnesses historical accelerations” the aerial photographs important in its slow pace (DeLanda, 2006). As is its potential to depict our urban a result, the delineation of coastlines experience as well as they question is a spatial tool to view the speed of the given identities and re-shape the transformation of waterfront. metaphors and narratives on urban The cartography of delineation living. In this regard, their new urban follows an open ended questioning of representation not only challenges our how the coastal space has deformed. common notions but also it powerfully In the words of Deleuze (2006), the unveils dynamics and potentials of the delineation is linked to the concept of city. “fold” which is linked to the materiality The city of Istanbul has been re- of things, the cartography of things shaped by the emergence of social and the textuality of things. In his and economic developments, words, matter and fold are intertwined tensions stemming from the contact in the “folds of the earth” and in the with contrasting interpenetration “pleats of matter” as they become of lifestyles consumption patterns, multiple expressions of thought and a new city region with a new urban cartographic folding. In this regard, society, a new built environment with the intertwined qualities among a new social geography, and new local lines and geography ties the fold identities (Güvenç, 2017). Its coastal together. With this filter the presented urban edge exemplifies the radical methodology towards a delineation of transformation, in particular. In order waterfront, becomes a cartographic to understand and grasp the long term practice to follow the folds of coastline urban transformation in a mega-polis, in actual space through lines and texts. it is urgently necessary to develop a Eventually bringing a holistic ontology historiographical look and a new way among the representations and of representation based on the above- material physicality of the coastal edge. mentioned theoretical framework. In Consequently, the waterfront as an this regard, this paper focuses on the unfixed urban edge crucially demands 1 The idea aerial photography representing the to become a place of inquiry, as an of “Critical Delineation” of waterfront has been conceptualized as a methodology in the doctoral thesis “This is not a line: Transformation of the Waterfront in Istanbul” Figure 1. Conceptual graphics for mapping controversies of waterfront in Istanbul (Graphic (Erkılıç,2019). by the author).

Towards a critical delineation of waterfront: Aerial photographs as evidence and record in Istanbul 96 urban edge in the context of “endless changes. Aerial surveillance of cities urbanization” and the “critique of was a technology initially developed urbanization” (Harvey, 2014; Brenner for military reconnaissance. They 2016). For Harvey, the urban is not were linked to “practices of memory an end product but a process (Op. and forgetting”, as tools of collective cit.). Inherently, for finding positions memory, as well as tools of surveillance to confront urbanization and its and exploration in military context crises, embracing criticality demands (Deriu, 2006, 2007). Further, with the to be discussed further in textual, advance and diffusion of technology, cartographic and actual dimensions satellite images were opened to public of space. In that respect, critique of access by worldwide map companies urbanization stands as a foundational like Google Earth. Meanwhile the theoretical context to search the evolution of GIS in public use turned boundaries of the urban and nature satellite images into a source to read revealing the human imprint shaping geographic zones and war geographies the urban edge. By this foundation, with public access (Kurgan, 2013). this paper calls to position waterfront Aerial photographs have started to be as an urban edge that is unfixed and used to monitor the shifting climatic critical in the process of urbanization - zones and boundaries. In case of as the proposed methodology is critical socio-political conflicts, aerial imaging delineation.1 witnessed a spatial change of the borders that demarcated climatic zones or state 3. Seeing through aerial territories (Weizman and Sheikh, photographs: A historical framework 2015). Recently, aerial photographs are Aerial photography as a challenging used in critical media studies regarding representation tool unveils a new landscapes of memory. The media understanding of the relations between studies methodologically alter material land and sea, in other words, a tool to and digital realms -brought by aerial grasp the spatial formation of the urban surveillance of military functions edge. Aerial images can be conceived as (Schuppli, 2017). They provide historical evidences to the evolution of photographic evidences of warscapes waterfront. Within this approach, the to provide evidences for the cases images provided by aerial photographs which short-comings of international are rendered in a way Ulus Baker judicial institutions (Weizman, 2018). would call an “image that generates The militarized intensity towards opinions” (Baker, 2016) and open way aerial view uses tools of geospatial to consider images as the driving force monitoring to monitor humans, in generating inquiries and questions. like immigrants crossing borders The position of aerial images beyond (Weizman and Sheikh, 2015). the documentation of research, allows Paradoxically, high resolution a discussion of a shared ontology with photographs are adapted to corporate the viewer and generator of these with utilitarian functions like images. For the study of urbanization, efficient engineering and planning of the paper argues that images become construction sites. For engineering potent agents, at least, as important or urban design purposes, private as textual narratives. Monitoring the companies provide high-resolution waterfront transformations initiates a photographs of private properties for research from the world of images, and betterment of work-flows. Drones generates questions equally digested fly over development projects for in the theoretical conversations of the commercial use of the images urban transformation. Briefly, aerial as promotion and advertisement of photographs have become driving development projects. agents of the practice of the research. Delving into depth of aerial The use of aerial photography, as surveillance history brings up a vertical dimension, allows a gaze new terminologies that can be re- oriented to both land and water. One evaluated in the monitoring urban of the possible ways is to look at these transformations by the public eye. photographs and follow the coastline As a term, “Evidence in Camera” was

ITU A|Z • Vol 16 No 2 • July 2019 • G. Erkılıç, I. Akpınar 97 the name of the periodical magazine The photographs warp time in a published during the World War II nonlinear manner. The aerial images by air military intelligence in England provide possibilities for a processing (Deriu, 2007). In the magazine, of responsibility that transfers through European cities, neighborhoods and being witness to something or being industrial sites were viewed before part of it. This is a point of departure and after bombing. Its circulation was to reframe evidence in camera in the limited to military circles and some context of urban transformation. images were used in public newspapers Despite the militarist technology, the as war propaganda. For Deriu, aerial urban transformation of Istanbul calls images often are regarded as abstract, for a depiction under the themes of artificial and detached tools of space spatial witnessing and evidence. which fall short in triggering an ethical The use of aerial photograph is response of the act of “bearing witness” founded on its immense role in urban yet they also have potential of making planning and operations of urban historical record. The aerial images demolishing. These photographs, of ruinscapes became witnesses to visualizing Istanbul from the mid- historical traumatic moments of “mass 1930s and end of the 1950s, represent ruination” (Deriu, 2007). The distance the radical transformation in the coastal of the aerial photograph was a work of line in the urban center. The first master “disembodied gaze that normalized the plan of the city projected by Henri scale of devastation by its distancing Prost in 1937 actually was based on a from the ground”. It is important to year-long study on aerial photographs note that these photographs were taken by the Turkish military (Akpınar, agents of ethical response to the act of 2003). The photographs were not only bearing witness to war but they were a documentation, but also a direct also concealed from the public eye. design tool in the development of This is why, departing from urban proposals in Istanbul. evidence in camera , the use of aerial Following massive urban imagery directs the dimension of demolitions of approximately 7,300 time in reverse. In camera (gizli celse buildings in mid-1950s and the as used in Turkish), is a term used construction of a network of large in law to indicate that the cases are boulevards, in the waterfront in closed to the public. It is used for particular, the very same photographs the trials held in private chambers had become an eye-witness for the without participation. Therefore, in radical urban transformation and a city where spatial transformation public memory. They unveil the loss is obscured, operational decision of urban and architectural heritage making processes are distanced from (more than 1300 Ottoman registered the public participation, construction buildings were demolished) (Duranay, sites are hidden behind walls and 1960; (Akpınar, 2003,2014,2017). panels, would it be assertive to say that In Istanbul, the aerial photographs the transformation of urban space is were the spatial witnesses and evidence actually held in camera? for the ad-hoc urban transformation of Even though the spatial urban Istanbul in mid-1950s. Photographs transformations of Istanbul are not not only visualize the radical change, comparable by the devastation of but also an archival material to re-read any ruination of war scapes, they are the massive urban demolitions under spatial witnesses to social, political the Premiership of Adnan Menderes and environmental impacts of between 1956 and 1959 and to develop projects altering the urban geography. a critique for the decade. Today, the When pulled back into the realm of aerial photographs of radical urban collective memory and of the urban changes are seen from bird’s eye view space, Istanbul’s heritage of aerial over the construction sites along the photographs can open ways to look at coasts. The construction in Galata history not as a long gone nostalgia, Port, Haydarpaşa, Kabataş, Kadıköy, but as a way of critically positioning Üsküdar, Yanikapı, and the periphery, the present practices of urbanization. which will be monitored in the

Towards a critical delineation of waterfront: Aerial photographs as evidence and record in Istanbul 98 following section. measures close to the ones from the hot air balloon and from the zeppelin. 4. Elevating from ground in Istanbul In the summer of 1909 several zeppelin Elevating from ground refers to a flights took off from Taksim square.3 temporal and spatial mobilization. Photos taken from balloon or zeppelin The temporal frameworks look at the offered vantage points no other tower transformation process through aerial or minaret could give until that time. photographs and introduce different It was the first time to see the city not scales of temporal conceptions. The from within but from its outside, up mobilization in the space allows to and above. see space from above as it floats by The photograph viewing the the viewer’s eye. A panorama of the city from above the Marmara Sea aerial photographs in Istanbul starting towards the north was one of the from the first flights in the beginning first photographs to see the historical of the century until present time gives peninsula and its surrounding seas, a spatio-temporal voyage. Looking at the strait and the estuary by their all the coastal evolution through aerial extents with eye. Captured frame was photograph holds a twofold temporality different from earlier panoramas, it -as underlined in this study. These imaged the city with its periphery, the concepts are found in the works of city where it ends with its hinterland. Fernand Braudel (1996) as the longue With the strait towards the North, dureé and the court dureé. The longue opening to the to the north, dureé refers to a longer period of time, Istanbul seemed humbler and smaller decades, centuries or millenniums within hills and geography (Figure 2). that oscillate in a geological time or Another flight was on March 19, ecological lifecycle. It was coined as 1918, a German zeppelin took off a conceptual and methodological from Yesilköy and flew over strategic approach that he used as a critique military sites along the coast.4 Over relating to historical evolutions which historical peninsula’s monuments, were in his view, could alter historical shipyards, Ports of writing that focused solely on “great Galata and Haydarpaşa, Istinye and historical events and conquerors” (Op. Tarabya Bay in Bosphorus where cit.). Historical evolution required military shipyards and other military longer periods of investigation, in long sites along its way were viewed.5 A duration, generating an evolutionary shot from that zeppelin viewed the tempo. The condition of the court dureé port at the mouth of the Golden Horn, 2 A brief history - short duration - on the other hand and the Quays of Galata of hot air balloon refers to an event or a moment of daily and Sirkeci that were built a decade aviation history life that renders it with a “journalistic ago. The maritime space appeared busy in Istanbul can gaze” that captures the event (Op.cit.). with floating vessels, barges,kayıks , be found in the link: http://www. This corresponds to everyday “in the sailboats, steamboats, vaporettos and airkule.com/ blink of an eye” moments as a journalist cargo ships. And another shot was yazar/balonculuk- would capture during an event. In taken from a sailing ship showing the tarıhcemız/338/ this context, aerial photographs can zeppelin flying in the sky over Istanbul 3 be seen as agents that give historical as Galata tower and the port of Galata One of the first published aerial evidences in both of these contrasting marked the edges of the silhouette on photographs of timeframes. ground. For the first time in history, Istanbul in a In Istanbul, the first airborne these aerial photographs had unveiled a German journal photographs were taken via hot air new way of seeing the imperial capital. Rundblickaufahme balloon and zeppelin companies, Started as military use, the zeppelin von Konstantinopel which promoted military air vessels flights turned into touristic voyages in & , th 6 Kaiserlich to Ottoman army in the turn of 20 the 1930s . Along the century, aircrafts Osmanichen century. In 1785, the first balloon flew over the city to shoot the urban Ballonzug can that took off from Topkapı landed landscape for planning and municipal be found in the in Bursa.2 Istanbul’s panoramas purposes. Airborne photographs link: http://www. hayalleme.com/ previously taken from the Galata belonging to the years of 1946, 1966, istanbulun- tower that were approximately 110m 1970 and 1982 were taken from havadan-cekilen- above sea level had not offered detailed aircrafts. They were geo-coordinated to ilk-fotograflari/

ITU A|Z • Vol 16 No 2 • July 2019 • G. Erkılıç, I. Akpınar 99

4 Op. cit.

5 This information is found in link: http://www. hayalleme.com/ istanbulun- havadan-cekilen- ilk-fotograflari/. These were published in Rundblickaufahme von Konstantinopel & Bosporus, Kaiserlich Osmanichen Ballonzug 3.

6 Military use of Zeppelins In 1930 zeppelin flights became more common for touristic voyages Yunus Nadi’s “49 hours in air with Graf Zeppelin” (49 saat Graf Zeppelin ile havada). He narrated a voyage from Berlin across towards Balkans. A prospective use of the zeppelin along with a prospective idea of other flights connecting Anatolian cities and Istanbul, which were never realized with the Figure 2. Aerial photographs of Istanbul as monitored and montaged in this study (See zeppelin. endnote*). Towards a critical delineation of waterfront: Aerial photographs as evidence and record in Istanbul 100 planimetric photographs that are open photograph was the first when the to public access by the municipality.7 public gaze over this project was visible These aerial photographs appeared (Figure 2). on web as maps, which are generated The construction photographs that distorted shots from space, different would be impossible to detect, see from the airborne photographs with or fully cover by looking at it from depth giving more distant gaze to the the land, appeared (rendered visible) eye. Rather they are flattened as if in the satellite photographs. The flat 7 For aerial they are satellite images with infinite landfill occupied a place that cannot be photographs perspectives (Figure 2). seen or experienced from the everyday by Istanbul High vertical image of the satellite gaze. The growth of land towards the Metropolitan Municipality: view differs from an airborne sea as horizontal dimension could only https:// photographic shot from an airplane; become visible by a gaze from above. sehirharitasi.ibb. and from a shot from a zeppelin, Aerial images, deliver a different gov.tr. and the panoramic shot from the message when the coastlines are 8 tower. What these photographs make delineated and juxtaposed. Delineation The aerial photographs apparent clearly is the changing of comes closer to the longer duration of mentioned in this the coastline in time. They play an geological time and unveils the unfixed paper are from important role in the visualization of geography of the waterfront of the land various online and urban transformation in Istanbul. that once belonged to the sea space. It is archival sources as The aerial photographs giveequally important that the coastline has listed below. The “Panorama of evidence to a large number of such remained almost fixed at some parts. ” by moments when viewed with different in this view following the coastlines. photographer Basile levels of detail and scales. Close up When observed at this scale, the coasts Kargopoulo, 1826- views reveal more for the human scale of the core maritime space belonging 1886. (Wikimedia and ongoing everyday life at the coast. to Galata, Sarayburnu, and Üsküdar Commons); Panoramic view These shots give moments of coastal differ from those of Haydarpaşa from Galata Tower structures under construction when and Yenikapı. Quays of Salıpazarı in and first Aerial looked at close range. They embed a Galata Harbor are presently under photographs of sense of motion in themselves; the construction for the renovation of the Istanbul Aerial motion of the growing land space. cruise ship terminal and the coastal view of İstanbul From the sky over One bears evidence to the moment docks are being extended for new Marmara Sea, when machines leveled the new coastal projects. Everyday encounters with 1918.; Zeppelin road from Üsküdar to Harem in 1990; waterfront already embody the daily over Istanbul, with another when the coastal parks were rhythms of spatial deformations. Galata Tower, greened out of newly reclaimed land Where these delineations fall too 1918 . Deformation of in Kumkapı. The moment when the abstract, the unfixity is viewed in the the coastlines second loading deck of Haydarpaşa close up views of the coastal landscape. 1946, 1966, was constructed for the new containers Cartographic delineation gives a 1970 1982, 2017 of the port in 1970 or when a swimmer longue dureé view of the coastline between Galata, jumped into the waters of Bosphorus in dynamics. Aerial photographs are Sarayburnu, Üsküdar, Salacak,; Tarabya from a newly expanded coastal juxtaposed in historical layers and the Haydarpaşa deck or the car park at Sarayburnu coastlines are delineated as outlines of Limanı, at the entrance of the Strait in 1990 land and sea split, displaying how the Haydarpaşa Garı, (Figure 2).8 coastline is appropriated. The coastline Kadıköy, Moda; In 2012, newspapers announced no longer refers to a fixity as for the Zeytinburnu, Kazlıçeşme, a 300-hectar new meeting area to be case of metropolises in other coastal Yenikapı, Kumkapı constructed on the coasts of Yenikapı geographies of the world. Yet each act of of the Historical by infilling waters of Marmara. The coastal organization bears a grounded Peninsula. (Aerial bean shaped infill was almost complete agency of its unique geography. photo source IBB, in less than two years of time at the delineaitons by the author) southern shores of the historical 5. Drawing coastlines to monitor the Satellite images peninsula. Satellite image showed the process of urbanization Google Earth and landfill that was under construction To bring the ends together, some Maps of Istanbul in the year of 2013, the moment positions can be depicted as an Metropolitan when the construction trucks lined amalgam of the role of images with a Municipality give most accessible top up, the moment that the excavation theorization of urban transformation views for the years fill was poured into water. This aerial by following the “maps contouring after 2000’s.

ITU A|Z • Vol 16 No 2 • July 2019 • G. Erkılıç, I. Akpınar 101

simple representations of the city. They have become important archival material to represent the urban transformation of Istanbul. In this regard, the coastal evolution and change can be peeled off from the aerial photograph as archival records of history. In other words, aerial photographs are agents witnessing these changing lines where the land and sea materially become a record of history.

6. Concluding remarks: Towards a critical delineation of waterfront Figure 3. Juxtaposition of delineated coastlines of waterfront 1946 Drawing coastlines to monitor -2017 (Graphic by the author). the process of urbanization, in fact, paves way for a critical delineation of the coastline” (Erkılıç & Akpınar, waterfront. With perpetual appearance 2017). The changing of the coastal of different photographs animated in contour bears the evidences from the time-space of the changing coastlines, aerial photographs - as a shaping and the aerial photograph becomes an reshaping process. Which in each open-ended machine of generating operation is an engagement of humans questions. As the images decipher, with the nonhumans as a re-negotiation waterfronts are heterogeneous of spatial transformation. In this stance, coming together of material flows, it is possible to mark a translation displacements, constructions, of planetary space into a human- demolitions, infills, excavations with shaped geography, as the theoretical objects, machines, transportation confrontations of urban and nature vessels, logistics which overall calls for a debunking of oppositions delineate a human presence in shaping among humans and geography. By the contours of water on earth. reviewing a possible translation The aerial photograph unveils of planetary space into a human- historical evidences of how the shaped geography, the theoretical actual urban space was shaped and confrontations of urban and nature re-shaped. Following the question calls for a debunking of oppositions of what can be unveiled and seen among humans and geography. beyond the present compression of Aerial photographs bear evidence to time; aerial photographs can become monitor the shaping of the coastal tools for both depiction and imaginary space in Istanbul in the past century. reconstruction of the waterfront. In When monitored in an expanded this respect, critical delineation of lifespan, developments (construction waterfront is an action that claims to of infills, coastal reclamations,rethink on the water geography in infrastructural installments, building the context of planetary urbanization. of ports, coastal roads, transformation And, this critical rethinking process projects, marinas, car parks, bridges, may pave way to a call of the right to tunnels, parks and demolishing of the waterfront. buildings) are all present in their This representation challenges the gaze. Urbanization of Istanbul by its boundaries between human and non- cartographies potentially alter the way humans, as well as the boundaries we have conceived the world we live in as that demarcate territories of water and well as they alter our critical positioning land. Opening the archive for the aerial towards urban developments. In this photographs requests entering inside regard, photographs can be critical the camera and to face what has already representational tools to question the happened. Which is a questioning of transformations of the urban space. how the coastal space in Istanbul has The aerial photographs are beyond transformed, constructed, demolished

Towards a critical delineation of waterfront: Aerial photographs as evidence and record in Istanbul 102 and reconstructed. Deleuze, G. (2006). The Fold.A&C To conclude, the presented Black. methodology as a way of seeing Deriu, D. (2006). The Ascent of with aerial photography, is far from the Modern Planeur: Aerial Images bringing in shorthand solutions, and Urban Imaginary in the 1920’s. yet it is a commencement for more Imagining the City Vol. 1: The Art of questions about the shaping process of Urban Living, Peter Lang Publishing. waterfront. How, by whom, with what Deriu, D. (2007). Picturing processes, and by what kind of agents Ruinscapes: The Aerial Photograph as was the waterfront shaped so? These Image of Historical Trauma, The Image agencies unfold further intertwined and the Witness: Trauma, Memory and closure of humans and nonhumans. Visual Culture, Wallflower Press, Great Regarding its unfixity, transformation Britain. and change, the coastline is shaped Desfor, G., & Laidley, J. (2011). under a multiplicity of agencies. Changing Urban Waterfronts: A Fixity How can aerial photographs entangle And flow Perspective. Portus Plus. with a critical gaze towards urban Duranay, N. Gürsel., & E. Oral, transformation and the radical coastal S. (1972). “Cumhuriyetten bu Yana developments in Istanbul rises as İstanbul’un Planlaması,” Mimarlık, a question to be discussed further issue 7, 65-118. towards a critical delineation of Erkılıç, G. (2019). This is not a line: waterfront. Transformation of the Waterfront in Istanbul, ongoing doctoral research, References supervisors: Assoc. Prof. Dr. İpek Akpınar, İ. (2003). The rebuilding Akpınar and Prof. Dr. Murat Güvenç, of Istanbul after the plan of Henri Istanbul Technical University, Prost, 1937-1960 [microform] : from Department of Architecture. secularisation to Turkish modernisation. Erkılıç, G., Akpınar, İ. (2017). Kıyı Doctoral thesis, University of London. Kenar Çizgisi: Koruma ve Kentsel Akpınar, I. (2017). “Urbanization Coğrafya Arasında İstanbul Kıyısının Represented in the Historical Değişimleri Üzerine Haritalar, Koruma: Peninsula: Turkification of Istanbul in Geçmiş, Bugün, Gelecek Arasındaki the 1950s”, in Mid-Century Modernism Diyalog Sempozyumu, 26-27-28 Ekim in Turkey, Architecture Across Cultures 2017, TED Üniversitesi, Ankara; TED in the 1950s and 1960s, Meltem Ö. Üniversitesi, Şehir Plancıları Odası Gürel (ed.). New York: Routledge, 2015, Ankara Şubesi, ODTÜ Kültürel Mirası pp. 56-84. ISBN-13: 978-1138806092 Koruma Lisansüstü Programı işbirliği ISBN-10: 1138806099 ile, Genişletilmiş Bildiri Kitabı ISBN Akpınar, İ (2014). The Rebuilding of 978-605-01-1076-0; s.312-320. Istanbul: The Role of Foreign Experts in Grosz, E. (2001). Architecture from the Urban Modernisation in the Early the outside: Essays on Virtual and Real Republican Years. New Perspectives on Space. Massachussetts Institute of Turkey. Technology Press. Baker, U. (2016). Beyin Ekran. Güvenç, M. (2016). Port of Istanbul: İletişim Yayınları. A Short History. In Port City Talks: Braudel, F. (1996). The Mediterranean Istanbul - Antwerp. Mas Books. and the Mediterranean World in the Güvenç, M. (2017). Doctoral Age of Philip II, Vol. 1 (Reprint ed). Research Seminar at Istanbul Technical Berkeley, Calif: University of California University. Press. Harvey, D. (2009). Cosmopolitanism Brenner, N. (2014). Implosions- and the Geographies of Freedom. Explosions: Towards a Planetary Columbia University Press. Urbanization. Berlin: Jovis. Heynen, H. (2011). Mimarlık Brenner, N. (2016). Critique ve Modernite-Bir Eleştiri, Çev. N. of Urbanization: Selected Essays. Bahçekapılı, Versus Kitap Yayınları. Gütersloh : Basel: Blackwell Publishers. Keyder, Ç. (2013). İstanbul: Küresel DeLanda, M. (2000). A Thousand ile Yerel Arasında. Metis Yayınları, Years of Nonlinear History. Zone Books. İstanbul.

ITU A|Z • Vol 16 No 2 • July 2019 • G. Erkılıç, I. Akpınar 103

Kurgan, L. (2013). Close Up at a Meyer, H. (1999). City and port: Distance: Mapping, Technology, and urban planning as a cultural venture Politics. Brooklyn, NY: Zone Books. in London, Barcelona, New York, and Latour, B. (1993). We have never Rotterdam : changing relations between been modern. Nous n’avons jamais été public urban space and large-scale modernes. Harvard University Press. infrastructure. International Books. Latour, B. (2004). Politics of Schuppli, S. (2017). Material Nature: How to Bring the Sciences into Witness, Visual essay. Webpage link: Democracy. Cambridge Massachusetts http://susanschuppli.com/research/ London, England: Harvard University materialwitness/ Press. Virilio, P. (1984). “The Overexposed Latour, B. (2005). Reassembling City”; Architecture Theory Since 1968, the Social: An Introduction to Actor- p. 541-550, K. M. Hays (ed.), MIT Press Network-Theory. Oxford University Weizman, E. (2018). Forensic Press (Vol. 1). Architecture. The MIT Press. Lefebvre, H. (2006). “Diyalektik Weizman, E., & Sheikh, F. (2015). Çelişki”; Diyalektik Materyalizm, Kanat The Conflict Shoreline: Colonization as Yayınları, s.7-80 Climate Change in the Negev Desert. Lefebvre, H. (2003[1970]). The Steidl. Urban Revolution. University of *For a complementary visual Minnesota Press. essay including the menitoned aerial Lefebvre, H. (1991[1974]). The photographs in this paper, plese visit production of space. Oxford, UK ; the video in the link: https://vimeo. Cambridge, Mass., USA: Blackwell. com/306541875

Towards a critical delineation of waterfront: Aerial photographs as evidence and record in Istanbul