ABSTRACT
Göreme is the place where Esin was born and where she lives. It is therefore not surprising that she depicted her life through so many scenic views of Göreme. Moreover, the photographs she took might also reflect a positive re-evaluation among Göremeli of the ‘Göreme landscape’ that has been promoted largely through tourism. As I have already noted, there is a sense in which local people can adopt a ‘tourist way of seeing’ and valuing the place in which they live and work, and Esin’s photographs convey her awareness of Göreme’s landscape as somehow special. Contrary to being ‘peasants without pride’, as depicted by Schiffauer (1993) in his discussion of the effects of outward migration on Turkish village life and villager identity, the people of Göreme have retained, or even gained, a sense of pride in living among the ancient and picturesque ‘fairy chimneys’ that have become world-famous objects of tourist and academic interest.
