Sunday, May 11, 2008

Street Photography from Turkey

In April i got to travel to Turkey to attend the screening of Captain Abu Raed at the Istanbul film festival. As always my leica was with me at all times and what a joy it was to shoot in this amazing city. I have developed half the film i shot and here is a picture heavy post of what i found on those 5 rolls of Tri-X


A view of the Asian side of Istanbul


Throughout the day fishermen stand on this bridge and try catching small fish.


This is exactly to the right of the last frame

I think this man sells food for the fishermen.
On a larger view of this frame you could see what caught my attention, and no its not the destroyed stairs.
Went walking towards the famous bazzar, got lost in the alley ways, it started raining and i saw this kid washing his hands
Inside the famous bazzar, a maze of small streets, shops and tons of characters.
Selling ka'ak , or at least thats what we call it in jordan.
An old man inside the bazzar, i decided im going to take many close up street shots of people i see around
Here is another one
Outside a bakery, selling belts among other things
Pineapples in the rain
Many shoe shiners are found all around the streets of Istanbul
Sometimes a street scene like this catches my attention
Followed this man for a bit, i have 4 different frames of him and his woman, liked this frame the most
The old and young generations
The man's beard was making everyone stare and look
Another shoe shiner, i was so close to him and he had no clue i made a couple of frames
Outside my hotel, a flower seller and her son
A mosque in the middle of an alleyway, waited until someone came into frame
Istanbul has some amazing textures everywhere, plus the people are so varied you can't even put a time stamp on this
Isn't this the same man from all the Kertesz's photographs?
I like what i have in this frame, saw him and waited till i found this nike shop front
Part of my closeup street captures
At night this street is full of life, actually it is alive throughout the day, this man had just bought a sandwich
When it rains the umbrella man emerges
and you see umbrellas everywhere
Then the sun comes out the next day and people sit and wait
one reads
two read
a third reads, this was all around lunch time
and others sit around and talk
after walking for quite a bit i took a break and decided to have a cup of tea, the man next to me was reading too
I love how light and shadow presents itself all around the city
tea and cigarettes everywhere
Maybe my favorite frame so far, in the large version of this image you can see her look as she leaves her friend
This old lady collects whatever she finds around
old men sit in the sun
or in the shade...i have no clue what this man's story is, but he caught my attention
The view of taksim square from my hotel room
Kids run around at night, i love it when i have motion in the frame
a couple was hanging out, smoking, this stair case at night looks really different, creepy of sorts
reminded me of those toy glasses and mustaches you buy for parties
the 28mm ziess lens came really handy here
the dog wanted some water
many things to sell, but no one buys
he had something stuck in his teeth
you find many people asking for money on Istiklal street
i got lost and walked into an old cafe, the men were playing cards, a flag of Ataturk is present in the background
and i'll end with this frame
Hopefully in the next couple of days i'll develop more pictures and post them up here


all images shot with a leica m6 , kodak tri-x +1


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9 Comments:

Blogger Pascal Grob said...

hey there, i've already commented on your uber page, just wanted to let you know, that i'm on blogspot too :)

2:49 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

an amazing set of photos, mate!

impressed by all of them!

10:21 PM  
Blogger Laith said...

thanks pascal and chris for your comments. Chris, doing the initial selects for the exhibition just got more difficult for me after this batch.

1:02 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Awesome shots! I've always wanted to go to Istanbul.

11:04 AM  
Blogger Oleander said...

AMAZING photos Laith.

6:56 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great shots Laith.

The glasses and moustache shot made me smile :)

8:25 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey,

I just stumbled across your site; great stuff! I am going to Istanbul and these great pictures are definetely inspiration to me... keep up the good work!

7:08 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

the frame of taksim square is great, so is the 7th from the bottom. nice, dude.

1:47 AM  
Blogger Laith said...

thanks mustafah...that was quick :)

1:54 AM  

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