Turkey. Guljuk. By the Marmara Sea. 1999
In the summer torpor on August 17, at 3 am, the earth shook along the Anatolian fault. The epicenter was located on the banks of the Marmara Sea, at Istanbul's doorstep. The regrettably well-known shifting of tectonic plates that generated the fault has ripped the Turquish earth many times in history, and that night took thousands of sleeping people by surprise. For long months I have been working on a feature on these faults and their damages. At its time, the city of Hierapolis would have been destroyed by an earthquake. This particular summer, far from the drama of these 17,000 persons who disappeared in a few seconds, the hot spring that covers the ruins of Hierapolis was still appreciated by the tourists. These hot springs were already famous in ancient times and the Greeks established a sacred city, and its temple to Apollo, God of arts and beauty was built on the source itself. This site is still very much appreciated by the tourists who swim there in total indifference. Witness of horror, the photographer always tries to tell everything and pay tribute to the grace and beauty, as so many breathings.