I traveled to Istanbul, Turkey, in November, 2004, planning to work on a series of photographs exploring religious iconography. I found instead the friendly, though fierce-looking Turkish people and their integral involvement with their 4,000 year old history. Startled to find such a wealth of many interesting faces and the complete willingness of people to pose for portraits for this stranger from a country with which they are increasingly at odds, I abandoned my original plans and spent most of two weeks in Istanbul trolling marketplaces and streets to find good subjects.