Hidden Istanbul
In search of her ancestors, Françoise Caraco travelled to Istanbul numerous times and spoke to people who had known a Caraco or Karako – or at least remembered the name. This gave her a unique glimpse into the culture of the Sephardic Jews who have lived in the Turkish metropolis for centuries but are not seen by most people. In ‘Hidden Istanbul’, Françoise Caraco sensitively interweaves family memories with her own contemporary photographs from her trip and research, mixed with different voices from Istanbul’s Jewish community. The result is a rich and nuanced portrait of a vanishing past and a still vibrant present of a city from the perspective of a largely unknown part of its population.