Instagram Photographers Focus On Turkey

A unique social media project called #ComeSeeTurkey was launched Wednesday in Istanbul, aiming to promote Turkey's history, culture, and people on the Instagram social media platform, via images shot by 20 photographers who between them command millions of online followers.



Although focused on Instagram, the project – estimated by one organiser to cost around 800,000 Turkish liras – will also use Facebook, Twitter and Youtube, rather than traditional advertisement channels, to showcase Turkey.



 Twenty Instagram users from different parts of the world with high numbers of followers or who enjoy great popularity, have been invited to Turkey for the two-stage project that will last 24 days and take place on two separate journey routes, covering a total distance of 7,000 km. 



In two groups, these photographers along with a #ComeSeeTurkey team will tour Turkey's 24 cities and shoot photos in the places they visit, and then share their photos with the world on their Instagram accounts, as well as the social media accounts created for the campaign.



Popular Instagram photographers from 13 different countries will try to depict Turkey's rich culture and beauty from their own point of view as Instagram photographers from all around the world.



One of the 'Instagramers', Christoffer Collin, a 30 year-old from Sweden with almost 600,000 followers, said he was excited to discover places in Turkey that would be normally unusual to travel and to reveal the beauty there via socail media. 



The only Turkish photographer in the group, Sezgin Yilmaz, told an AA reporter that Turkey had a lot material to work on in artistic sense which will be uncovered during the tour.



First-time visitor to Turkey, Putri Anindya, a 22 year-old journalism student from Indonesia, said she started  photography just for fun but was now getting serious as the power of social media brought her to Turkey for her first promotion project. 



In the first phase of the project, ten of these Instagram users will start their tour in Istanbul's Dolmabahce Palace on April 16.



They will also travel from Turkey's north eastwards, visiting the cities of Trabzon, Artvin, Ardahan, Kars, Agri, Van, Mardin and Gaziantep, while the other ten photographers will visit central and western cities and places including Kayseri, Capadoccia (Nevsehir), Konya, Antalya, Aydin, Pamukkale, Dalyan, Bodrum, Izmir and Gallipoli in the second stage.



A special team from Turkey's state broadcaster TRT will accompany the photographers, shooting a documentary to be broadcast at the end of the project.



The #ComeSeeTurkey project has its own website and Instagram account, which aims to attract a total of 26 million users.



Started under the auspices of the Turkish Presidency, the project's main sponsor is the Turkish Union of Chambers and Exchange Commodities, and co-sponsored by Turkey's Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Turkish Airlines and the Turkish Photojournalists' Association.



englishnews@aa.com.tr - İstanbul