Photography by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott

Alfred Hitchcock held that a director or a scriptwriter has to use as many elements of a city as possible to "earn" the right to use that city in a film. So a movie shot in Switzerland must contain Swiss food, watches, chocolate etc. as key plot devices. While that may have worked for his films, I'm really tired of seeing the same things whenever a photographer/director decides to shoot in my home town, Istanbul using the city as a theme. Especially fashion shoots are guilty of squeezing Turkish textiles, tea, coffee, simit, food, anything Ottoman or early 20th century into a single frame. I have to praise Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott for breaking the cycle with their Istanbul photoshoot for W Magazine. They did a great job of just focusing on certain architectural shapes and juxtaposing them with beautifully shaped clothes.

(They then contradicted this shoot with a Kate Moss as harem-girl shoot in a Turkish bath but I have to forgive this slight because the photos are so gorgeous and lively.)