Retired Professor, Author

Ph.D. University of California, Santa Barbara 1985

eddiegirdner@gmail.com

"Progress might have been alright at one time, but it has gone on for too long."

Ogden Nash.

"What the bourgeoisie ... produces... is its own grave diggers."

Karl Marx

I am mainly showing life on the streets of Izmir, Turkey and other places. I try to shoot "human landscapes," a concept of Nazim Hikmet, a Turkish Poet. He was a communist, exiled from Turkey to the Soviet Union.

I like the photos of common people taken by Ara Guler a famous Turkish photographer.

Some of my photo books are available on Amazon Books.

Also the streets of cities in India are interesting, but challenging do to the incredible clutter and confusion.

I love to shoot with a Leica M6, but recently have been doing more medium format.

I generally shoot with black and white film and do my own film processing using Kodak HC-110 developer. But it is not always available in Turkey.

I have a file of negatives of all the pictures I shoot.

Film Cameras:

Leica M6 TTL with 35 mm f 2.5 Summarit lens.

7 Artisans 50 mm f 1.1 Lens for Leica M mount

Minolta SRT 101 with Rokkor 55 mm f 1.7 lens. (Owned since 1972)

Mamiya RB67 Pro S

Yashica Mat-124

Zeiss Ikon Contina with Pantar 45 mm f 2.8 lens.

1930s Voigtlander Bessa, Compur-Rapid. Voigtlander Braunschweiger Voigtar f 3.5, 105 mm

Zenit Soviet Camera

Living in Izmir, Turkey

I take photos of every day life in cities, towns, and villages where ever I go.

I have written some books, which some people hate. And a few people like. And some people hate me for writing them. That's OK. It indicates that some of them might be pretty good. My home town library in Princeton, Missouri will not put them on their shelves. If they had been a lot better, they might have burned them, like they burned John Steinbeck's books in his home town of Salinas, California. At least they are mine and to hell with what people think about them. Some people do not want to deal with real life, the way it really is. There is always a price to pay for expressing what one thinks, honestly. Or depicting the real world honestly. What can you do? That's life. Some of them might be fun and interesting to read. They are on Amazon under the name Eddie James Girdner.

John Steinbeck called the critics "lice." They called him a communist. It was a compliment that I have also received more than once.

The USA must be one of the most religiously puritanical countries in the world, although sex is highly exploited for profit. Probably as a result of that. A little mention of sex in writing seems to drive some reviewers of books ape-shit. This seems to be more the case now that the US is in the thermidorian reaction phase of the 1960 sexual revolution. It is very interesting, indeed.

The word thermidor does not even appear in some American dictionaries. So much for the French Revolution in America. A complete blank.

One should not pay much attention to the gyrations of critics.

I would rather be hated by people than to be a phony and a liar, like one must be if one wants to be a politician. That is not for me.

Some silly and demagogic politicians in the USA like to warn people that if they are not careful, they risk being just like Europe. I tell them not to worry. They will never be like Europe. They will never have the benefits of social welfare that is taken for granted in most European countries. They are told that social welfare is "socialism." They would not have a clue about socialism if it hit them in the face.

I am 74 years old, so I wasn't born yesterday. I hope that I have learned something in those years. Not enough, but something.

I have traveled quite a lot. Not as much as I would have liked, but quite a lot. And I have plans for more.

Anyone is free to use the pictures but I wouldn't mind if they gave me credit for making the picture.

Retired from University teaching in the United States, Cyrpus and Turkey.

I am pretty much giving up color. Just black and white film photography. C-41 color developing at home is hardly worth the shot and the chemicals do not last long, once mixed. Not more than six weeks for use.

I usually end up converting some of them to black and white after scanning, anyway.

If I run out of film on a trip I will use my cell phone in a pinch. It is not possible to just buy film anywhere, like it was a few years ago. Some digital cell phone photos can be quite good and converted to black and white. Sometimes one can get a picture with a cell phone that is not easily possible with a camera, but as long as I have film, I will shoot film.

Developing black and white is easily and enjoyable, just using Kodak HC-110 with a one-shot process.

The developer is always fresh. I generally get better results than with color developing.

I make prints using an old Czech enlarger (Meopta, Optemus 5). These old machines work fine and are not expensive if one finds one.

Karl Marx predicted that the only relationship between people would be the cash nexus. Great insight! Now we must pay to post photos. And now everyone believes that Marx was wrong. That's because they do not have any idea about what he said. Now I become a presto Pro, just paying a little money every month. Ain't that a hell of a note! (as an old friend of mine used to say)

I first started taking pictures around 1957 when I was twelve years old. I ordered a Tower box camera from the Sears Roebuck Catalog. It used 120 film that I could get developed locally in Missouri.

Later when I was a student at the University of Missouri in Columbia, I got a Kodak Instamatic Camera. But I didn’t take many pictures with it until I graduated and spent two years in India in the Peace Corps. I made a collection of slides from this experience. I was back in the USA in 1970/

Then I started teaching High School. I wanted a real camera and bought a Minolta SRT 101, with an MC Rokkor 55 mm f/1.7 lens. I still use this camera, after 48 years. I used it when I quit teaching and joined the Navy for four years.

After becoming a professor, I still took pictures, especially on trips to India, but had less time for it.

In the late 80s, I bought a Nikon N4004 with auto-focus zoom lens. I realized that it was a mistake the first time that I used it in India. I didn’t like the automatic features, like focusing and aperture settings. The worst thing was that it ate up batteries very fast, especially in the heat of India. And sometimes the camera would not fire when I wanted to take a picture, because it would not over ride the settings. When I wanted to take a picture, I wanted the camera to work, whether the settings were right or not. It also wasted film when the film was loaded automatically. There was no point in that.

Later, I sent the Nikon to England to get it fixed. Nikon said they had fixed it. That was a lie. They said it just to get me to pay the shipping charges back to Turkey. They sent it back without fixing it, saying it was too old. After that, I was finished with Nikon. I didn't like these tricks. I decided that I would get a Leica.

This was when I realized that my old Minolta was better for the heat of India. And also that I liked a fully manual camera better. Also, some pictures tended to be under exposed. I realized that manual was better. This Nikon camera was designed badly and the film door latch, made of plastic, eventually broke. Nikon would not fix it as it was too old.

I switched to using a small digital HP Photosmart camera for a few trips, such as Vietnam and China, when I was teaching. It was convenient, but I never liked using digital.

Once I retired and had time, however, I decided to get back into film. I realized I needed to buy a used Leica, but meanwhile I used my old Minolta. I also played around with a Russian Zenit 12XP. It is a good camera for close up shots of flowers. These cameras were plentiful and cheap in Turkey.

I started developing my own film.

Then in 2016, I went to Munich and bought a used Leica M6 TTL, with a new Leica Summarit f/2.5 lens. This became my primary camera. Especially, it is good for black and white. The Leica store in Munich reserved a camera for me and I went to Germany and picked it up. The store there was very reasonable and gave me a good deal on the camera and lens. The problem is that the used cameras and lenses are bought up almost as soon as they appear on the internet.

I also bought a Mamiya RB67 Pro, which I enjoy playing around with.

I make some black and white prints too.

I mainly love black and white photography, and like to push film, especially shots made in the city in the evening.

Turkey is not very rich for supplies for film photography. The main shop for film and film cameras in Izmir is Hamza Rustem in the old bazaar of Kemeralti. (Anafartalar Caddesi). They also sell digital cameras. But not Leica.

In Istanbul, there are several shops that sell film and developing chemicals in the Sirkeci area of Istanbul. (In Eminonu area)

For Leica film cameras, one must go to Germany and bring the camera back personally. Otherwise one would be hit with huge customs duty.

Turkey, with its ancient history, is a fabulous country for photography. Every corner of the country is rich. And travel is easy and convenient.

Almost all my photos on flickr are from film. Only a few photos are from digital.

I know that digital makes great pictures and is very convenient. But it is not the same thing as making pictures with film. I enjoy it, even though it is much more work to develop the film, scan it, and edit it.

A friend gave me an old Zeiss Ikon camera that I use sometimes. Makes great pictures.

Photography is a good hobby for retirement. I wish that I had taken more black and white film pictures when I was younger. They are priceless after a few years.

Amazing what one can do with old film.

I hope that no one is crazy enough to read all of this shit.