FRANCISCO SECO - Associated Press
•8/19/2026
ISTANBUL (AP) — For centuries, Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar has been more than a marketplace. Behind its crowded passageways, generations of craftspeople have made, repaired and restored the objects that eventually emerge for sale.
In workshops and in narrow streets surrounding the bazaar, casters shape molten metal over fire. Engravers add detail. Polishers bring finished pieces to a shine. A single object can pass through several specialists before reaching a merchant’s counter.
Much of that work happens out of sight, in rooms crowded with tools and machinery and darkened by years of dust, smoke and heat.
The artisans' quarter is also a community. Tea circulates through its courtyards and workshops. Craftsmen stop for lunch, gather over games of backgammon or smoke a water pipe between jobs.
But that world is changing. Some production has moved away from Istanbul’s historic center to larger, more modern workshops. Technology has changed how and where goods are made. Some traditional trades struggle to attract younger people willing to spend years learning the work.
Others have adapted, sustained by repair work, tourism and continued demand for objects made or finished by hand.
This is a documentary photo story curated by AP photo editors.
