This is a photograph I took , 2 years ago, in a poorer district of Istanbul called Balat. I really like the feeling of the photo when I look at these two little gypsies. They were so distant from everything and so totally in their thing. They were walking and gigling while boys around were making pass to them. They were so away from the troubles of real life, although they were in the midst of poverty and drama.
The district is kind of a place, where you should be looking for your stolen camera type of place. But strangely ,the feeling when one would get , was rather friendly and you didn't feel any discomfort. Although you could have seen the Syrian refugees , potential thieves and smugglers around.
I also grew up playing soccer on streets. Please try not to miss the goalpost drawing at the background. If/ when you score just at the conjunction of goalposts the street jargon we used to call as "90" as a reference to 90 Degree! Those 90 and 60 refer to that jargon. You can understand that it is regular place where boys soccer there.
After sometime I decided to paint the same photograph.
But although the original photo is in colour, I decided to do it in black and white. The feeling of the close friendships, the ghetto and that small area relations seemed so out of date, like my childhood, so I painted in black and white
