The ceiling of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul. The interior of the mosques really stop you. They are immense on the inside, almost a Doctor Who-type effect. The Byzantine method of building domes upon domes was nearly perfected by the time this mosque was built and worked to create an immense inner space, unlike a cathedral which tends to be relatively narrow. I found myself sitting there on the carpet not only looking up, but looking around as well because the design of the mosque encouraged such behavior. But mostly I sat there and stared up, because how do you not become mesmerized and lost in a ceiling such as this?
Tags: Istanbul Sultan Ahmad Mosque Blue Mosque Turkey pinhole film analog 6x6 Zero Image Zero Image 2000 square relgious buildings
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I'm going to start with Istanbul, despite it being more or less a footnote on this trip. My time in Istanbul was one of decompressing, unwinding, processing, assimilating. I was there as a relaxed, sight-seeing tourist - a stark contrast to my reasons for visiting southern Turkey and the work I did down there. It is a bit of an irony, the most important part of my trip produced the least photography, and the least important part produced the most. So most of the imagery I have to share comes from the portion of the trip that is least important to me for sharing. But I knew that going in, my purpose as a photographer wasn't to photograph in Reyhanlı, it was to do other much more important work than to make my own images. But I will get to those few images I made eventually because there is still much more I care to say about that time. Instead, I'll start with Istanbul. I have much to say about that city too... and it is easier to talk about and explain.
And there is still much to say about Istanbul. It is an incredible city. I went in with certain expectations, some of them were met, some exceeded, others surprised me. For example, I knew I wanted to see Hagia Sophia and the Basilica Cistern. Those were probably the two top items on my list. Also on that list, but a bit lower were the two major mosques: Süleymaniye (Süleyman the Magnificent's) and Sultan Ahmad (Blue) Mosque. The surprise was that as impressive as Hagia Sophia was and as cool as the Basilica Cistern was, neither moved me anywhere close to the same amount as these two mosques, particularly the Süleymaniye Mosque. I am not a religious person, spiritual yes, religious not so much. But that certainly doesn't mean one isn't moved by such places. In fact, I think it is even more impressive when you are so moved.
The Süleymaniye Mosque dominates the Istanbul skyline. It is one of those sights you can see from most anywhere in the city (as opposed to Hagia Sophia which modestly sheltered from view from a lot of angles). The mosque is perched atop the third of Istanbul's seven hills, goodness how you are reminded of that fact over and over again walking the streets. The mosque is an impressive enough structure from the outside... and it really is quite impressive. I loitered in the courtyard for a while taking it all in. It was surprisingly uncrowded, unlike the Blue Mosque which sits across from Hagia Sophia. The view from the back courtyard, the view from the front courtyard, the rising, stacked domes, the cemetery out back with the mausoleum for Emperor Süleyman and his wife; they all combine to create a sense of place that stills you. And that is before you even enter the mosque. The Süleymaniye Mosque is an active place of worship, which meant that despite the day's heat I had worn pants to cover my knees knowing where I would be visiting. It also means you remove your shoes before entering and carry them with you. I arrived shortly before the noon prayer so had a while to sit under the domes of the mosque and just be enveloped by the feeling of the place. It was pretty incredible. And when we were finally ushered out so the prayer could commence I was able to listen to it while wandering amongst centuries-old tombstones behind the mosque. It was an experience I won't soon forget. Tomorrow we'll go into the Sultan Ahmad Mosque and I will show you how incredible the interiors of these magnificent buildings are. Til then, I have a video up on Facebook of the exterior of this mosque filmed during the noon prayer if you want to look and listen.
www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10203198561118612
Tags: Istanbul Turkey pinhole film analog 6x6 Zero 2000 Zero Image wooden cameras Kodak Ektar 100 Europe travel mosque Süleymaniye Mosque Süleyman the Magnificent Turkish history architecture enter
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While teaching my pinhole class last weekend this was one of the images I shared as a demonstration of just one of the things pinhole cameras can do - in this particular case, long exposure. As many of you know, pinhole cameras come by long exposures quite naturally, you are after all working with an aperture of f138, f180, f250 etc. Since long exposures control motion blur you naturally want to look for things in motion. Often times this is water (waterfalls, oceans, etc) or clouds but it can also be other things like trees blowing in the wind, traffic or my favorite: people.
Pinhole cameras are particularly well suited for photographing crowds of people, for two reasons. One, their long exposures can turn an otherwise boring group of tourists into a blurred and mysterious frenzy of motion. Two, they are not obvious cameras in their operation. You set them up and let them quietly go and hardly anybody will notice.
The cloister atop Mont Saint-Michel is a beautiful place full of light and air... it is also full of people, which I suppose historically speaking it always has been. We have just traded a gathering of monks for a gathering of other travelers. And as I said, gatherings of people make interesting pinhole subjects. So I wedged myself back into the corner, let the wide angle perspective of my Innova take in the entire corner of the cloister and waited out a 60 second exposure. Ironically enough, my camera did not go unnoticed this time though. Standing next to me was a group of German students and one of them saw my wooden box on its tripod and started a conversation with me. His English was limited to a few words so I had to dredge up my German which was rusty but got the job done (note to self, remember to look up the German term for pinhole camera).
Just a few of the reasons I love my pinhole so much as a traveling camera.
Tags: cloister Mont Saint-Michel pinhole film analog France Europe 6x9 Innova 6x9 abbey historic Normandy Normandie
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The abbey of Mont Saint-Michel, or at least one small part of it. The structure itself is quite large and took Wendi and I a few hours to wander all the way through it. Of course, our passage was not expedited by me stopping to make 20 minute pinhole exposures. I set my camera up for this one and within like five minutes this man came along and looked at me and my tripod then proceeded to stand right in front of my camera to make his photos. His wife kept looking at him like she wanted to say something. I think he was completely oblivious to the fact that I was in the process of making a photo. After all, my wooden box, once the exposure is started, is very low-profile and unassuming. But I was not too worried. It is the rare person outside of pinhole photographers and those Mr. Statue guys that I have met that are willing to stand in one place for anything more than a couple of minutes. Sure enough, he got his image and moved along had no impact on the final exposure. Like he was never there.
Then again, there were several crowds of people in this chamber when I made this exposure and they might as well have never been there either for all the imprint they left on the image. I could mine that thought further, but it is off to teach a pinhole class I go.
Tags: Mont Saint-Michel pinhole film analog 6x9 arches historic abbey France Europe 20 minute exposure travel architecture arch
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The streets of Mont Saint-Michel abide by a completely different definition of "street" than what we normally consider. You certainly could not drive a car up these roads; you'd be hard pressed to get a motorcycle from the bottom to the top of the village... and that is not even taking into consideration the river of humanity that flows up and down these narrow, winding paths. And while there is one main path that loops around from the entrance to the village to the abbey above it, Mont Saint-Michel is a riddle of narrow side passages and steep stone steps that take you to the tops of the walls where you can stroll by the old battlements and look down upon the pressing crowds. You can get lost easily - surprisingly so considering how small an area you have to wander.
Mont Saint-Michel has a permanent population, it is about 40, but on any given day this swells by a hundred times or more. It is amazing the sheer number of people that can fit on this small island, penned in by these ancient stone walls. Standing along the main drag here, surrounded by gift shops and restaurants and little French auberges I wanted to make an image of all the activity sweeping by. But in such tight, crowded confines setting up a tripod is not the easiest task.
Still, where there is a pinhole, there is a way.
Tags: Mont Saint-Michel film analog Innova 6x9 France Europe Normandy 6x9 travel crowds
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