Istanbul Portfolio

Made in 2006, the Istanbul Portfolio is a suite of ten drypoint etchings with chine-collé, produced during a second period of fieldwork with American legal teams interviewing former Abu Ghraib detainees, this time in Istanbul. The print method extends the Amman Portfolio: each sheet centres a frontal portrait of a single witness, with sections of his account inscribed in reverse into the plate so that the testimony reads as part of the image. Chine-collé — thin sheets of coloured or patterned paper bonded to Rives BFK during printing — introduces a second surface behind or around the figure, often a warm tan or muted ochre that softens the clinical isolation of the Amman sheets and locates the encounter in a more specific tonal atmosphere. The drypoint burr remains prominent, carrying the speed of on-site drawing. Expanded to ten plates, the Istanbul suite gives more room to differences between sitters: variations in posture, dress, and the length and pacing of testimony become legible across the sequence, and the portfolio reads as a deliberately accumulating record rather than a single emblematic image.