Photography and Writing by A. Cemal Ekin
I was thinking of a subject to write about when an e-mail alert arrived from Sotheby’s about their upcoming auction. It will close tomorrow, April 3, but you can still view the photographs in the auction. And what a collection it is! You will see works from well-known masters like Walker Evans, Irving Penn, Aaron …
In the past, I wrote about photo auctions and mentioned a few by Sotheby’s. I enjoy them because I get a chance to see many photographs I couldn’t see otherwise. And, most of them present a different set of works by a diverse group of photographers. About a couple of years ago, I stumbled on …
Life in the Days of Corona We have been home for quite a while now with the exception of going to the local CVS to pick up our prescriptions. Jan continues to take Karma for walks several times a day if the weather permits. But in any case, they walk at least two or three …
Jan has been taking photographs for quite a while now. Although she photographs a variety of subjects she has found her voice in abstract photography. She is more interested in the colors, texture, lines, and shapes than the object she photographs. Some of her work may be minimalist rather than abstract but those she took …
I have scanned many slides, negatives, prints over the years. Since late December 2019, I have been doing it as a project to convert old photographs to digital and, in some ways, relive the memories. The end result, I hope will be an archive of family members, gatherings, events as well as many photographs I …
Although this time we stayed in Ayvalik for only four days, we managed to do and see quite a bit. Ayvalik is colorful and charming that invites exploration. We also met new people and saw new places. In this final post of the ongoing travelog, I will try to give you a feel for the …
When we visited the olive grove for the second time in the morning, we went to Ma’Adra Vineyards on the hills of Madra mountains for lunch. The road was winding and rough, the weather a bit foggy, but traveling as a two-car convoy we made it to the vineyards high up on the mountains. The …
A couple of years ago, Binnaz and Ergun purchased an olive grove as a future revenue source for the ASKEV foundation. The grove has about 1,000 olive trees, mostly old with a few newer ones. Since the purchase, they have done additional work to make the grove conform to high-quality agriculture standards with automated irrigation …
I am probably beating a dead horse by writing about the very strange change in Istanbul’s architectural character. I wrote before about the discomfort of Istanbul and I experienced the same when we visited there in October 2019. In my previous visits and related posts, I called Istanbul with a nickname I coined for it: …
Continued from part 1, the is the end of our second week in Istanbul. Elif and Mina arrived on October 14 and we all went to Ayvalik on October 15 to return to Istanbul on the 19th. October 11, 2019 As planned, I dropped Jan off at Mehmet and Isin’s house where the girls would …
Photographs can have highly evocative qualities. When successful, they create an emotional response in the viewer. Often times, this may be mixed with liking or disliking the work but with a little extra nudge, we can probably enter the evocative domain and explore the underlying feelings. My previous post included 30+ photographs which I hoped …
The Providence River provides many opportunities for the town and its residents. There is the Water-Fire, rowing possibilities, walkways, the view it provides, and the new pedestrian bridge. It officially opened on August 9, 2019, and a couple of days ago, I went to see it with Jim. (He also wrote about the bridge) The …
Published in the Issue #59 with 15 photographs.
Things are getting back to normal and I am picking up the camera again. At least when I can find a cool place to photograph, both subject wise and the temperature I mean. Dave’s Supermarket where Jan does the grocery shopping has been a place you are getting to know. It is an inviting place …
Well, almost summer. If it weren’t for the flowers, we wouldn’t recognize the arrival of the seasons. The weather has been fluctuating a lot lately and gradually settling on warmer days. Being a fair-weather photographer, I pick the days to take a walk or step out to the back yard. If the weather is not …
It seems as if I have known the name Ara Guler all my life, at least from my high school days. He was a well-known photographer going back to the 1950s in my memory. I have never met Ara Guler although I have seen him on several occasions. A scruffy-looking Istanbulite with an eye that …
Generally, when we take a photograph there is a single scene, one element; and, that is what we expect to see. There are, however, reasons to combine multiple photographs to produce one, more evocative image. This article was supposed to be a presentation I prepared for the Stony Brook Camera Club but due to an …
Yesterday morning Jim invited me to go down to Jamestown and we left around 10:30 AM. After the rain we had, the morning was a bit chilly and the water was foggy. As we drove over the Jamestown Bridge I could see the fog covering some parts of the vista and towards the end, as …
Sotheby’s, Supermodels and Seduction: 50 Years of Fashion Photography Supermodels slideshow worth viewing. You may or may not recognize the models and the photographers but their impact on the fashion consciousness is undeniable.
The title is a little misnomer because the place I refer to is a supermarket. Specifically, it is Dave’s Market where we do our grocery shopping every 7-10 days. Actually, Jan does the shopping and I either sit and enjoy a cup of Dave’s coffee or take a nap in the car. That is when …
As this photograph zooms in on the details of the lead photograph in the previous one, our attention will get closer to the photographic aspects of the discussion. In the previous post, I tried to establish a backdrop for architectural photography. In this post, we will focus more on photography specific issues. It is important, …
Architecture is an art form, it is a branch of science, it is a business, it is the architect’s personal expression as well as that of the commissioner. So, it is not surprising that I see architectural photography as overlapping various forms, kinds, branches of photography. This post will help me crystallize my ideas of …
Yellow is unique in the color spectrum. It is naturally luminous, almost up there with white. Most colors have lighter and darker tints and shades, but not yellow. The dark yellow sounds odd since it becomes brownish! The fall color in Utah, at least in the parts I have seen, is yellow unlike in New …
This post is dedicated to the memory of our good friend Alan French who passed away yesterday. He loved trains, I wish he could have seen some of the photographs. Rest in peace Alan. The delayed trip to the Great Salt Lake Marina happened one afternoon with great weather still prevailing. It was an easy …
