Celebration of Death

For two years, during the Islamic holiday of sacrifice, I have been visiting the temporary areas where they cut the animals. I have never encountered a dead person before, this is as close as I have been to a corpse. But still, the feeling and the smells are heavy. 

At first, close proximity of death surrounds you. I have grown the habit of waiting for the moment I get numb to the situation. That is when I can start my work. 

I have not been the most outgoing person when it is time to shooting people and I was heavily afraid of shooting butchers (with their axes) doing their job. At the end, most of the time Turkish people are not sympathetic to photographers and you don't want to piss off guys with knives. But soon as I entered that temporary area inside the tents, people were very friendly to me. I hear almost all of them say "where are you coming from?", "which channel do you work for?", "are you going to show this on the news tonight?". Well, I wasn't shooting for any news and it wasn't video. I think it was their over-proudness. They were so happy to be doing this because 1)it was a holy task, 2)it was a very masculine task and by doing so, they proved themselves, 3)it was good money. Regardless of my approval, it just made my job easier. Some of them were even asking me what pose I wanted. I told them that I didn't want them to pose but at the end, I didn't want to dishearten them.

These photos are not included in my website, but as soon as my webmaster and I have contact again, some will be showcased there. 

Twins: Kertesz

Maroc

From the shores of Tangier to souks of Marrakesh, Morocco has a left-alone feeling to it wherever you go. Laughs are frequent but shallow, gazes are bored, eyes are deep. 

Secrecy of love is the excitement.

Although I shot almost exclusively B&W, I couldn't help but use color during our cross-country trip in Morocco. The colors were strong and dominant. Once I start shooting with colors in my mind, I can not concentrate on shapes; I think that is my problem with colors and my reason to stick to B&W. But the "blue" state of mind of Moroccan nights are more evident in colors. 

Why Caucasian Roll?

Have you ever wondered why this blog is called Caucasian Roll? If yes, keep on reading.

Roll comes from blogrolls, as in ever changing; a little cliche, a little boring but somewhat representative. Caucasian, however, is a little different. It is used as the legal equivalent of "white man" in police language. But my reason is neither legal or racist; Caucasian is the way Dude calls his White Russian in the movie Big Lebowski. 

So, as a friday treat and a homage to my influence, I have decided to share visuals that I found from a Facebook group dedicated to him. 

If you still haven't had enough, here is the infinite list of quotes from the film. 

Abbas or Akbar?

Photojournalists have to create an awareness to their enviroment and so did Abbas. During the times when I was drawing circles photographically, his words on photo essays in the book "Magnum Stories" has inspired me most. 

Having covered the Revolution in Iran, sometimes I think, what would Abbas think about today's Turkey and what would he photograph?

Henri's Way

This photo is considered as the photo that explains the theory of Decisive Moment and hailed as one of the best photos ever taken. I am not in a position to challenge this but somehow when I see the picture below, I feel better. Maybe it is because more stories spark up in my mind when I look at it. 

Here is a paragraph from Wiki about him:

Cartier-Bresson spent more than three decades on assignment for Life and other journals. He traveled without bounds, documenting some of the great upheavals of the 20th century — the Spanish civil war, the liberation of Paris in 1945, the 1968 student rebellion in Paris, the fall of the Kuomintang in China to the communists, the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, the Berlin Wall, and the deserts of Egypt. And along the way he paused to document portraits of Sartre, Picasso, Colette, Matisse, Pound and Giacometti. But many of his most renowned photographs, such as Behind the Gare St. Lazare, are of ordinary daily life, seemingly unimportant moments captured and then gone.

Happiness and M6

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.

Albert Schweitzer

Mikhael Subotzky

Many great photographers of the analog era stand as my role idols, along with my uncle Sedat Pakay, but occasionally comes along a new kid on the block. Mikhael Subotzky is the latest one. 

OK, I admit, I am not the biggest researcher and he might be around for a while, but I first heard about him last year and took an instant liking to his work. 

His final year project took him to prisons in his native South Africa and those photos took him to Magnum. Currently the youngest person in there, he is hugely envied by the owner of this blog. Althought my huge interest in Magnum Photo Agency remains I don't think I would become a part of their circle even if they approach me, solely because they keep all the negatives of the photographer. That I can only do after my death, sorry. But I wouldn't mind a MOMA Exhibition, that's for sure. 

One thing about him has struck me though, he gives too many poses for a photographer. Most photographers prefer not to do it, in order to freely move around and take photos in public.

"For me, photography has become a way of attempting to make sense of the very strange world that I see around me. I don't ever expect to achieve that understanding, but the fact that I am trying comforts me" 

Cities at Night

Reading COLORS Magazine's "While You Sleep" issue (number 32) back in 1999 opened up another point of view to a slice of day that was pretty much unknown to a then 15 year old kiddo. What can happen at night? What is going on while we sleep? Years later I find myself quite at ease under the moon as I do under the sun. 

But today I have come to believe that not every realizes that. While I was looking thru my photos, I started searching for photos of city nights. Googling "city at night" gave me almost nothing. Neither did "cities at night". "city nights" fared little better but not enough. But why photographers seem to ignore nights? It might as well be the best time of day for doing great work. 

My work is humble but at least I try. I urge you too. 

All Is Not Lost!

Remember the news last week that I was ripped off my hard disk? Well, scrap that now. The news is my hard disk is back, with all the stuff in it. It is not yet in my hands now, but it will be tonight.

To mark the occasion I feel like throwing in a couple of photos.

This one is from Josef Koudelka. I wanted to put a photo of his that is not very well known. But still it shows the human side of his photos unbelivably. Here is the man himself:

"Sometimes I photograph without looking through the viewfinder, I have mastered that well enough, it is almost as if I were looking through it."

This is our brunch table after visiting Koudelka exhibition last year.