The Money Shot
Istanbul, Turkey 2009
Our group was booked into the Arcadia Hotel so we could have a chance to photograph this scene. I think I was the only one to try to do it. I must have taken a hundred shots, bright sun, dusk, night, dawn. My husband helped me move the beds and chairs so I could set up my tripod. I was determined to go home with a good shot.
The hotel was called the Arcadia. It’s still there but is called the Arcadia Blue now. Last year on my way home from Uzbekistan, my friend, Torie and I stayed here. We wanted to get this shot again and also to eat some red mullet, called barbunya in Turkish. Funny, but neither plan worked out. The restaurant had no red mullet and I couldn’t get the windows lined up right to get the shot.
I used to walk in the neighborhood of the Arcadia, in 2009, when my husband and I spent several days in Istanbul. A man sitting in front of a carpet shop yelled across the street to me one day. He spoke perfect English. I yelled back and soon we were sitting together chatting. Although he was only in his forties, he had had a stroke and was partially paralyzed. Whenever I passed, I’d stop and tell him about my day.
One day as we were sitting there, a black 4×4 with tinted windows stopped in the middle of the street blocking traffic. A young man in dark glasses, impeccably groomed, dressed completely in black, emerged from his car, walked swiftly up to my “friend”, knelt on one knee and kissed his hand, murmured a few words, then quickly got back into his car and drove away.
I was astonished. It was a scene straight out of The Godfather. My face must have had a questioning look as my friend, looked at me and said, “He was paying his respects.” I didn’t ask any questions.