Instagram photographers focus on Turkey

A unique social media project called #ComeSeeTurkey was launched Wednesday inIstanbul, aiming to promote Turkey's history, culture, and people on the Instagramsocial media platform, via images shot by 20 photographers who between themcommand millions of online followers.Although focused on Instagram, the project – estimated by one organiser to costaround 800,000 Turkish liras – will also use Facebook, Twitter and Youtube, ratherthan traditional advertisement channels, to showcase Turkey. Twenty Instagram users from different parts of the world with high numbers offollowers 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 tourTurkey's 24 cities and shoot photos in the places they visit, and then share theirphotos with the world on their Instagram accounts, as well as the social mediaaccounts created for the campaign.Popular Instagram photographers from 13 different countries will try to depictTurkey's rich culture and beauty from their own point of view as Instagramphotographers 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 benormally 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 thatTurkey had a lot material to work on in artistic sense which will be uncoveredduring the tour.First-time visitor to Turkey, Putri Anindya, a 22 year-old journalism student fromIndonesia, said she started  photography just for fun but was now getting serious asthe 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 inIstanbul'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 tenphotographers will visit central and western cities and places including Kayseri,Capadoccia (Nevsehir), Konya, Antalya, Aydin, Pamukkale, Dalyan, Bodrum, Izmir andGallipoli in the second stage.A special team from Turkey's state broadcaster TRT will accompany thephotographers, shooting a documentary to be broadcast at the end of the project.The #ComeSeeTurkey project has its own website and Instagram account, whichaims to attract a total of 26 million users.Started under the auspices of the Turkish Presidency, the project's main sponsor isthe Turkish Union of Chambers and Exchange Commodities, and co-sponsored byTurkey's Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Turkish Airlines and the Turkish Photojournalists' Association.