Istanbul's Dale Farm

In 2006, while hitchhiking from Europe to India, I got stuck in Istanbul trying to secure visas so I could pass through Iran and Pakistan. It was at the height of nuclear tensions between the Bush White House and Ahmadinejad. I waited three months for the embassies to say no.

In the mean time, I settled in Istanbul, where I started photographing Europe's oldest settled Roma (Gypsy) community. I didn't speak any Turkish but I managed to win the trust (or sympathy) of the clan leader. Life was changing very rapidly for them as the government began destroying their homes with bulldozers protected by armoured police in order to make way for yuppie condos.

It was an overnight gentrification, and what interested me were the basic everyday rituals of intimacy that seemed to act as a thread of cohesion in the midst of their chaos.

And yes, Balarama Heller is my real name.