Award-winning photojournalist Webb presents his vision of the Turkish city of Istanbul in the form of some 200 full-color photographs. His photographic work in the city has been governed in no small part by his sense of Istanbul as a border city between Asia and Europe, between Islam and secularism, and between ancient and modern. Turkish novelist and Nobel Laureate Pamuk contributes an essay on the culture of Istanbul and hüzün (or melancholy). Distributed in the US by Distributed Art Publishers. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

In Istanbul: City of a Hundred Names, Magnum photographer Alex Webb displays his particular ability to distill gesture, color and contrasting cultural tensions into a single, beguiling frame. He presents a vision of Istanbul as an urban cultural center, rich with the incandescence of its past--a city of minarets and pigeons rising to the heavens during the early-morning call to Muslim prayers--yet also a city riddled with ATM machines and clothed in designer jeans. Webb began photographing Istanbul in 1998, and became instantly enthralled: by the people, the layers of culture and history, the richness of street life. But what particularly drew him in was a sense of Istanbul as a border city, lying between Europe and Asia. "For 30-some years as a photographer, I have been intrigued by borders, places where cultures come together, sometimes easily, sometimes roughly." The resulting body of work, some of Webb's strongest to date, conveys the frisson of a culture in transition, yet firmly rooted in a complex history. With essay by the Nobel Prize winning novelist, Orhan Pamuk.