1. The subtly entitled: Istanbul (street work).
I’ve been trying to experiment much more with the shadows; pools of light, angles, reflections and so on. I decided to take a step backward in many ways in order to see how I could use what I had learnt so far; technically, composition-wise and imaginatively and see if I could push things further than before. These are a collection of random photos, parts of other work and events that occur as I walk the streets………the baskets on pieces of string that get lowered down by people of all ages for the local shop to pop newspapers, food or drink into. People at play, work and relaxation.
There’s a whole culture of acceptance of children with guns here. Whether it’s a by product of national service, the fear of invasion from almost every country that neighbours them (Greece, Bulgaria, Iran, Armenia, Iraq, Syria and Georgia – and then with Russia just across the Black Sea) or the acceptance that many people have guns of their own at home – people shoot air guns for fun, teach their children how to aim straight and give them air guns as 7 year olds which they then shoot at each other, cats or balloons. As a European who’s own country has seen a legal gun owner wander into a school and kill 16 youngsters- the Dunblane massacre – never mind the recent events in the US, Finland, France etc…..i stare in puzzlement.
This is a series I’m planning to carry on working on throughout and explore much more – I’m planning to go to the shops that sell them, distributors and manufacturers. I want to track down any protest groups as well…….
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3. Basketball shots
With my street photo head on yesterday, I spotted the potential for something. It took me a lot of moving backwards and forwards, adjusting of focal length and bending my knees by about 25’ and holding myself there – but I finally managed to line up 2 minarets, with 2 pairs of hands….. I then stood looking ridiculous for the next hour as people walked through my position….. I eventually found that the best thing to do was to have both eyes open providing peripheral vision around the camera, looking ahead to ensure that I had the minarets and arms lined up, and then as people walked by shoot without knowing whether it was an image worth capturing or not……these are the best 5 I think out of 140! Boy did I need a beer afterwards, my back and knees were killing me!
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3 comments:
Hi Jono,
Your idea on children and guns sound really interesting. I had a look on DDR but some of the images are displayed to small to see properly...
Did you see Erika Larsen's images of children/teenagers in the U.S - hunting.
It is different issue but very captivating to see them with their rifles.
http://www.worldpressphoto.org/index.php?option=com_photogallery&task=view&id=1121&Itemid=187&type=&selectedIndex=0&bandwidth=high
Looking forward to seeing more on this.
And don't forget Zed Nelson's Gun Nation work. I think you can see it on the Panos site. www.panos.co.uk
You should head east Jono, to Sanliurfa and close to the Syrian/Iraq border areas. Lots of kids with real guns there. I saw them earlier this year on a trip to the region and heard crazed, football mad residents of Sanliurfa shoot handguns and automatic weapons into the late-night air when the Turkish national team won one of their miraculous come-from-behind games in the EU2008. Once the bullets started flying in the air I headed quickly into my hotel room knowing that what goes up must come down. Sure enough, the national papers the next day said more than 20 people were injured from gun shot wounds during the overnight celebrations.
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