youtu.be/XEYJVeinNEw

 

Life is a carnival, isn’t it?

 

There are moments on the Earth, lived by others and the task of photographer is to freeze these natural events. That moment has a story to people who are living it, but it may be a complete different story for the ones observing it outside. Every time the photographer presses the shutter, s/he creates a new story. Then the photographer convert that single-scene story into multiple pictures. Those scenes begin to tell a melody and then the lyrics move in.

 

I, here, try to tell the story of streets from my perspective. The stories may be accurate, may be way off; they may be real or false, but every picture talks to people separately. They whisper stories to me and to you in parallel universes.

 

Enjoy the Galaxy from my side.

 

About me and just my two cents

 

Being a mechanical engineer, my interest in photography developed when I was in high-school. Before buying my first entry-level DSLR camera in Canada, I was practising composition with a simple Kodak point-and-shoot camera that I bought for my family when I visited US in Grade 10. After January 2011, I started doing photography in an amateur fashion. Born and raised in Turkey, I am currently living in Canada. I have had a backpackers life as I moved around often due to work/study purposes. This lifestyle gave a chance to observe other cultures, streets and life in multiple countries and cities.

 

Currently my backpack is in Vancouver, so it is safe to assume that I am living in Vancouver.

 

Cities and photography… I guess up until recent few years, this is what I thought: I have grown in a mix of rural and urban areas. I do not like cars much, I do not like superstores that are in the middle of nowhere and reachable by only personal vehicles. Even suburbs are too much; I cannot handle them. I was born in a small town near Bulgaria border, but after I am eight years old, my family moved to a jungle called Istanbul. Since then, I lived only in large cities such as Istanbul, Vancouver, and Stuttgart except one time. I lived in a Canadian town for eight months that is very sparsely populated; and indeed, that time I understood I cannot accustom myself to the life in a smaller place. Stress, crowds, and noise are in my blood and this is very much reflected on my photography. I love streets because the streets are the veins of a city. They reflect the actual life in its most naked state. Poor, rich; happy, sad; calm, moving; all these contradictions dwell harmonically only on the streets. Some people call this situation a chaos, but it is actually the very natural texture of a city. Most of the time this texture causes identity crises, but even such a problem is integral part of the urban life. Therefore I do enjoy taking pictures of more natural moments within the ongoing life.

 

What do I think now? Don't ask; as I am updating this, we are in strange times (particularly called Pandemic).

 

Street photography is hard to this nowadays due to internet and privacy awareness that have developed in the past 15 year. A city is complete with its people, and it is the same in photography. A place has more significance when there is a history in it. Otherwise a building lingering by itself does not tell much of a story. Places and stories are complete with human presence.

 

Still I am trying to present the galaxy from my eyes as much as possible. I hope you enjoy it.

 

Equipment

Digital:

Olympus E-PM1 Micro 4/3

Olympus M. Zuiko Digital 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 IIR

Analog:

Minolta X-700

Soligor Multicoated Zoom+Macro 28-70mm f/3.9-4.8

Minolta MD 50mm f/1.7

Minolta MD W.Rokkor 28mm f/2.8

Former:

Canon EOS 1000D Rebel XS

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II

Canon EF-S 75-300mm US f/4-5.6 II

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

 

Worthy things:

 

Stanley Kubrick: Yes that famous guy… shooting movies… Eyes Wide Shut and stuff… but as a street photographer

twistedsifter.com/2011/12/stanley-kubricks-new-york-photo...

 

Patrick J Adams: The guy from “Suits”. Toronto locale…

www.halfadams.com/rkey!

 

Taiye Selasi's excellent TedX speech that seeks an answer to the question "where are you from?"

www.ted.com/talks/taiye_selasi_don_t_ask_where_i_m_from_a...