Photographer: Masis Usenmez Bio: EFIAP honored, Armenian origin Turkish photographer based in France. Collection: 1/1 total 33 photographs.

Snow usually comes to Istanbul mostly for two or three days a year. It is the most magical moment when it arrives. It covers all the darkness of the big city with a white layer and makes people enjoy the city for a day or two. When I see the snow in Istanbul, I remember my childhood and a happy feeling invades me every time.

My two inspirations of this series are the novel “Kar” by Orhan Pamuk, which is also the Turkish word for snow, and the movie “Uzak” by the director Nuri Bilge Ceylan. In this series, I took photographs on the streets of old Istanbul when the snow hit hard. The domes of the great mosques look otherworldly covered in white. On the Galata Bridge, people enjoy their time, fishing, lovers hugging, friends throwing snowballs. Istanbul looks like a black and white photograph in the snow.