“Eşik Noktası” at Muse Contemporary, Istanbul: Arctic Photography at the Climate Tipping Point

In climate science, a tipping point is the threshold beyond which change becomes large and irreversible. “Eşik Noktası” at Muse Contemporary in Istanbul borrows that term for its title and asks what it looks like in the Arctic, through the lenses of two Turkish wildlife photographers. The exhibition runs in Levent from 21 October to 5 November 2026 — a short, urgent window timed, as Euronews Türkçe noted, just ahead of the COP31 climate conference hosted by Türkiye.

Three years, two expeditions, the 84th parallel

The photographs come from a three-year project by Süha Derbent and Dr. Murat Uslu. According to Medyascope, it began in 2024 at Arctic Bay, on the northern tip of Canada’s Baffin Island, and continued north of Svalbard in Norway, reaching the 84th parallel — deep into the pack ice, far beyond where most visitors to the Arctic ever travel.

What they recorded is both a bestiary and a warning. Euronews describes images of polar bears, Arctic foxes, seals, walruses and whales, alongside the melting glaciers and shifting ecosystem that these animals depend on. The tension is familiar from the best environmental photography: the more beautiful the image, the more acute the sense of loss.

The photographers

Süha Derbent, born in Istanbul in 1963, came to photography from journalism. His gallery biography traces a path from reporting for Cumhuriyet to work for Atlas and Marie Claire, and he is best known in Turkey for his photographs of big cats. Muse Contemporary presents his wildlife work on its website as fine-art photography rather than documentary illustration.

Dr. Murat Uslu is his partner on the Arctic expeditions; the image on our cover is one of his. The pairing of two photographers on the same journeys makes the show quietly comparative — two sensibilities responding to the same ice, light and animals.

A father-and-son installation

The exhibition’s third voice belongs to Deniz Derbent, a Berlin-based designer and new-media artist — and Süha Derbent’s son. Medyascope reports that his interactive installation uses a glass panel and controlled lighting to produce an optical illusion from the reflection and passage of light. It is described as emphasising empathy between species, and it is the first work father and son have made together. Placing a glass surface among photographs of ice is a neat formal echo: transparency, reflection and fragility are the shared vocabulary of both.

Partners and purpose

The project was developed with Roots & Shoots Türkiye, the youth programme founded by Dr. Jane Goodall, and the printing of all the photographs was supported by Vehbi Koç Vakfı, according to Medyascope. Press coverage summarises the show’s ambition as inviting visitors to think, question, hope and act. That framing is unusual for a commercial gallery, and it positions the exhibition somewhere between an art show and a public-awareness project.

Muse Contemporary in Levent

Muse Contemporary sits in Levent, Istanbul’s business district on the European side, rather than in the Beyoğlu–Karaköy gallery corridor. That location gives it a different audience from the downtown galleries. Note that the show is only on for just over two weeks, so plan accordingly.

Why it matters

• For photography collectors: fine-art prints from a demanding, high-latitude expedition by an established Turkish wildlife photographer.
• For photographers: a chance to study how two practitioners handled the extreme light and scale of the polar environment.
• For everyone: a timely, accessible way to engage with the climate crisis just before a major international conference held in Türkiye.

Visiting information

Muse Contemporary, Aydın Sokak No: 12, Kat 1, Levent, Istanbul. 21 October – 5 November 2026. Open Tuesday to Saturday, 11:00–18:00. Telephone +90 541 278 39 23; the gallery does not list a public email, so use its contact form.

Read the coverage by Euronews Türkçe and Medyascope, visit the gallery website and Süha Derbent’s page, see our exhibition listing, and find more Istanbul openings on Upcoming Art Exhibitions in Leading Galleries.