Ewa Ciechanowska

Turkish Empire was governing lands from Hungary to Georgia, from Algiers to Eritrea over half of millennium. Its collapse gave countries to the generations which lived under Turkish occupation. These terrains are still suffering from shakes which are echoes of the history. We can find traces of it in the landscape: ruined houses in Bosnia, empty terrains near Kars in eastern Anatolia where millions of Armenians used to live, removed faces of Saints from Serbian, Macedonian, Romanian monasteries, ruins of Trapezunt or Ani. We can read sub consciousness of former Ottoman Empire nations from their landscapes. 

The more we travel through former Empire of Turks the more we notice the impact of hundreds years of cultural, economical and religious occupation on landscape of todays Bulgaria, Albania or Greece. Genius landscape painter John Constable said: We see nothing truly till we understand it.

Photographed by Ewa Ciechanowska and Artur Urbański in Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Greece, Georgia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Turkey during 6 years of travel to Balkans and Middle East.

2013 - Niebostan, Łódź, Poland

2012 - Bałkany, Impresje, Galeria Re:Medium, Lodz, Poland

2016 - Ostlook Magazine, Germany

2012 - Bałkany, Impresje, Book, Wydawnictwo Szkoły Filmowej, Lodz, Poland