Back to the streets: The Abdali Chapter
I'm back to photographing the streets of Amman. It has been some time since i have gotten a chance to do what i love doing. Hitting the streets with a camera, a roll of film, and hopes of capturing moments that happen in my viewfinder's framelines.
Yesterday i decided to go to Al-Abdali. This is a photo heavy entry.
Watched her cross the street and tried to do some panning action.
He sat there drinking his coffee, i saw the sign which says "king hussein st" , also wanted to get him through the bars.
He sat there smokng a ciggarette, i waited till he put it down, for some reason i was more interested in him just sitting there and watching people walk around.
Looked like a tough guy, waited till he pulled out his lighter.
Maybe one of my favorite from this roll. He was eating ulker pretzel sticks. The combination of that with the coffee on the ground made it for me.
Many small vendors are scattered throughout the place, waited till he gave the old man the money.
I actually made this frame before the one above.
Everyone was on their mobiles. I could have done a series on that.
A yemeni man waits for the bus, wonder where he is heading. Yemen? It would be cool to take a bus from Abdali to the mountains of Ibb.
The people and the bus.
Again a man on his cell phone.
I think i'm going to be doing a series on people carrying stuff. They were looking for a ride to Irbid.
One of the station's controllers.
These are all low quality negative scans. I'm about to go back into the darkroom and print some of these. Can't wait to see the results.All Images were shot on a Leica M6, 50mm Summicron, Ilford Delta 1oo developed in ID-11.
Labels: Amman, film photography, leica, street
posted by Laith at 1:15 PM
11 Comments:
Abu Majai ...
Great pictures... brilliant compoition ...
i am interested in photography too ... i am sure i will check ur page alot ... :)
i cannot WAIT till you start offering photography lessons! CANT WAIT!
beautiful pictures...
Very interesting shots, thanks for sharing.
Loved them as always, but I was wondering do you ask these people first? If not, is it legal?
Nice....great work ...so jordanian
Fresto: Welcome to the blog, glad you liked my work. keep on checking, as i am posting more and more stuff now.
Hal: Taslami ya khala
Elijah: When i am doing street i don't ask. Street is all about capturing true and candid moments. Look at the works of Dosineau, Brassai and Henri C Bresson in capturing the streets of paris. They didn't ask.
The only time i ask is if i am doing a portrait of a person that i find interesting. Also i used to do these type of shots using a zoom lens from a distance. Now i'm right in the middle of the action, in a way i feel that i have a right to capture what i see. As for the legality of it, i don't think there is a law forbidding photography in public space, once you are in the street, it's fare game. If i am caught or asked, i sometimes start speaking spanish. Works most of the time.
Maha, tololy and hareega: thanks for having a look.
It's kind of easy and interesting to actually "feel" everyday's life in those shots.. very alive in away .. and really good !
LOL @ Spanish, fair enough for me, but I hope I don't see my pic one day here when I'm back in Jordan :)
First of all…nice pictures!
As a person who goes to Abdali on regular basis, unfortunately, the scenes are not quite as nice as those pictures; I remember one day a little boy had a new toy and wanted to play with his younger brother (both sell seeds & peanuts), but the boy ended up beating up the little brother because the latter didn't feel like playing! That kid (helplessly) spent an hour on the cold dirty street… not moving, but crying and cursing as if he was a 40 year old bitter man (he barely was 10).
Sorry for the long (and perhaps meaningless) comment; but felt like sharing it!
It is great to see shots of Amman, shot through the eyes of someone who really loves the place.
Thanks for these.
And keep in touch.
Norman
norm, great to hear from you. I do love amman, but i do miss L.A sometimes.
anonymous: i shoot what i see. I don't try to make things look nice. I look around and react. If something like what you described happened while i was around, most probably i would have made a frame. I hope to document the street both in its beauty and hardships. Thanks for the comment.
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