Kept Light » Turkey

Hagia Sophia Folio

A. Cemal Ekin — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 03:49:15 +0000

I have created a folio of 12 photographs from the dome of Hagia Sophia. The photographs are printed photographically on metallic paper which brings out the reflective qualities of gold extremely well. The folio opens with a title page, includes a certificate of authenticity, and continues with a collection of 12 photographs. They are all enclosed in a hand made gold-charcoal folio cover. I sign and number the certificate of authenticity and the folio cover. This stunning collection will make an excellent addition to anyone’s art collection.

The current price of the folio is $250 per set and will increase to $300 after the copy number 6, to $400 after copy number 10. There may be additional increases after that and the total number of folios of this collection will be limited to 18 copies with no more than 3 artist proofs.

Available copies are:

Copy	Price	Status

#1-#6	$250	Sold
#7-#10	$300	Sold
#11-13	$400	Sold
#14-#18	$400 *	Available

* Subject to change

Please contact me using the form on the “Contact” page if you have questions or are interested in acquiring a copy for your collection or for gift giving.

Here are the photographs in the folio collection

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Bursa, dinner

A. Cemal Ekin — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 17:19:37 +0000

Our stroll down the hill in Bursa brought us to the old Jewish district. The area is well preserved and its main street is lined with restaurants, seemingly belonging mostly to the same owner, Arap Sukru Cetin. As we enjoyed our dinner, across the aisle four men enjoyed their dinner that is so typical in Turkey. It starts slow, with small appetizers, small sips of raki, chit-chat; then the conversation moves either in the direction of politics or singing, in either case getting louder. Luckily for us (and quite possibly for themselves) they chose the latter and joined by two street musicians with their clarinet and the small drum, darbuka. I observed them as I enjoyed my meal and the conversation at our table.

In singing traditional Turkish music, the singer’s head, especially that of the amateurs, moves in predictable manner; down for low notes, up for high, occasionally moving side to side much more rapidly than the rhythm would indicate. The length of time of down or up state depends on the length of the note. Clapping occasionally enters the scene keeping rhythm with the drummer (at least some of the time.) The group certainly enjoyed themselves and I was interested in capturing the gesture, the movement of the music with my camera. They knew I was taking photographs but mostly ignored me, thank you guys. I did not know who they were, I will not meet them again in all likelihood. I hope they accidentally find their way to this page and remember the good time they had.

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A walk in Bursa

A. Cemal Ekin — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 15:23:49 +0000

After visiting the Ulu Cami (The Grand Mosque) and Koza Han (see the earlier post about them), we strolled through the streets of Bursa. With a detour to see where Ergun lived when he was a young boy, we walked down the hill to a restaurant in the old Jewish district. We left Koza Han from one of its highly ornate gates. In contrast to the one we used to enter the structure, this was huge and highly ornate. I am not sure which one is the main gate. Outside, the local merchants displayed a variety of wares for sale and the passers by showed interest in the items. It was late afternoon, early evening. People made stops for snacks, or walked at a quick pace towards home; at least I thought they were going home. Those who had time to linger found places to perch like the young couple under the very old tree outside the Grand Mosque (Ulu Cami).

As we walked down the hill, I saw one of the many fountains in the city. This was mostly spraying mist, creating a little comfort zone for those who want to pause to rest. I wanted to capture the water in different states, in frozen time with droplets visible and in slow motion where moving water becomes like cotton candy. This is normally a reasonably simple thing to do by using a fast or slow shutter speed. The first was easy, the second proved more challenging as I did not have my tripod with me. The slow shutter speed photographs are taken with camera hand-held at 1/2 to 1/8 of a second. I could still hold the camera steady at those speeds.

Then we passed a statue and a small area dedicated to Cemal Nadir Guler, a cartoonist of my childhood who entered the psyche of the population with a character Amcabey. Through his cartoon art, he commented on various aspects of life in his time. I did not know that he died at the age of 45.

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The Puppeteer in Pera

A. Cemal Ekin — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 14:49:13 +0000

On one of our outings, when we visited Narmanli Han, I heard an enchanting music coming behind a line of people watching something. I could see the head of a very tall man with his face painted white but could not make anything of it until I got reasonably close to peek through the crowd. It was a puppeteer manipulating his alter ego with an accompanying story. In a way it was mesmerizing, the man was talking, narrating a story in a deep voice over the music seemingly coming from a device attached to his waist. His black attire, a backdrop for the marionette, made him look larger than he probably was. His arms moved in carefully choreographed sequences carrying the marionette in different directions, or made him kneel. The totality of the experience was captivating, almost to a fault as I do not remember even one word the man said for fear of missing a move, or missing a note of the music.

Then, there was a man in white, I mean from head to toe white. He stood there with occasional smile on his face, with total incongruity with the crowd surrounding the puppeteer; his sole purpose seemed to be to provide a strong contrast to the puppeteer in black. Seeing the puppeteer, the man in white, and a young man who appeared to be the apprentice of the showman, was at times a surreal experience. Who were these men, why did the man in white stood there, why did the apprentice appear to be disinterested in what was going on yet in full costume like his master? I took some photographs, albeit only a dozen or so under rather low light conditions. We continued to visit Narmali Han, where I took some photographs of the cats. Then on our way back, the puppeteer was now wearing an oversize mask, fitting to the occasion, rather grotesque. This time he and his alter ego coincided more.

I took a few more photographs but we had to move on. Still, I believe the few photographs I have convey the surrealistic experience quite strongly, at least to me. Here are the characters of this late afternoon show.

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Ayvalik, Flowers, and Windows

A. Cemal Ekin — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 19:50:38 +0000

A stroll through the narrow streets in Ayvalik will make one aware of the close relation the people have with two things: flowers and cats. Now, I don’t mean to give the impression that you will find lush gardens, meticulously manicured in ever respect. I know of one such garden in Ayvalik, it is the garden of the Melin house on Zafer Street. Instead, you will see hollyhocks reaching 8-feet or more in height on a sliver of soil on the side of the street, perhaps a mere 8 inches; you will go by many houses where windows became mini gardens with some flowers in pots; you will even see flowers painted on old, crumbling walls, as if to make them last longer. In every alley, next to most poles, at the corner of many houses will be some plant trailing to find the best path to reach the sun. Of course, some are large and thriving roses hanging from the walls, or oleanders moving to the wind.

This gallery is a small selection of photographs which show the close relation between the people and the plants, mostly flowering. Cats, well, that’s for another post.

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