Streets and Their Backgrounds

This will be my last posting for 2013. I thought a few observations about the choice of a picture's background would be appropriate for end of year musing...

While in street photography one does not have the luxury to take time and frame a shot, it is often possible to find a background you want to have for your story. Then it is a question of patience, luck and quick clicking to freeze a story with that background. I have chosen a few shots from here and there to show what all this means for me.

This was a band in Paris, under the Tour Eiffel. There was enough movement among the players, and a background of steel, horizontal and vertical. I developed the picture at a slightly warmer temperature to give additional grain and fuzziness to the movement.

Atop the Table Mountain in Cape town, South Africa, a tourist was taking a picture of her travel companion. The clothing lines were smooth and appropriate for a B&W shot. But the background was just perfect for texture and contrast. The story would have been lost if they were facing the ocean. I still wonder, however, if she was smiling.

This one from Porto, Portugal. I liked the graffiti and the lines of the setting (horizontal, vertical, strait, curves, smooth, rough, etc). I stayed there for a long while waiting for someone to walk into the picture with a story. But that day no one walked by. So, I took a picture of the background to remind me that there was no story in that picture! It is said that a street photographer follows the same strategies as a hunter, and that often comes back home empty handed.

Sometimes simple lines capture a 3-D feeling most appropriately. This one from Prague, Czech Republic. I think the story would have been different if the priest had a straight posture like the soldier, as everything else is in cold squares, rectangles and vertical lines.

A simple gathering of teenage girls is most un-telling for a picture. But when they look at their shoes with different body languages, it makes it worthwhile to frame. A waist-level camera, in this case a Mamiya 645 1000s, can be very helpful for such quick shots. This one from Baltimore, Maryland.

I liked the brick wall, the arch and the columns as background to the art-deco shape of the bench. Yet, I needed a subject in front of them! This was in Taipei, at the National Taiwan University campus. I passed by that spot a few times, between classes during the afternoon, but could not get a picture. Just as I was about to leave for the day, this woman walked slowly toward the bench. It was a clear day but she had an umbrella- so I had to wait and see what she was up to. She took her shoes off, parked the umbrella just so, and assumed an visibly uncomfortable posture for a person in need of rest. I then realized that the bench had very short backs, and only on each side. The symmetrical lines of her posture were in perfect harmony with the background. Sometimes art-deco may not lead to comfort!

Finally a picture from Vienna, Austria. A night shot with a 1948 Canon B-II rangefinder and a 50mm 1.9 Serenar collapsible lens, wide open. One can guess what the man may be thinking, but the expression on the woman's face remains enigmatic. The wide-open lens gave the softness and very shallow depth-of-field to the background making it more fantasy-like.

December 24, 2013
©Vahé Kazandjian, 2013

Women in Arizona

I did not plan to take pictures of women during an Arizona trip, but the ones I chose ended up about women telling stories about Apache Junction,Tucson, Mesa and Flagstaff.

The first one was on the road from Tucson to Apache Junction. Deep gorges, cactus, desert, sun. This young woman was sitting at the edge of a deep valley and seemed lost in contemplation, smoking a "Camel"-- what can be better in the desert?

The second picture was at Mesa, at a horse farm where this woman rescued old horses. This one was her favorite and she agreed to a picture. There is a kindness that comes through.

The third is a true street picture, taken in a parking lot. As I was getting to my car I heard laughter, turned around and a second later wondered what I captured without having time to focus. I still do not know, but since the feather headpiece was on the car, where was big Chief?

The last one was at the University of Tucson. I liked the "Women's Plaza of Honor" but needed a story. After a few minutes of waiting, the man sat at the entrance and the women walked into my picture. Men stayed at the entrance of the Plaza, it seemed.

All pictures taken with a 1969 Nikon F. The first one with a Nikkor 200mm telephoto of the same era, and the other three with a Nikkor 50mm. The negatives have chemical damage and are scratched, but I thought still have a story to tell. After all who goes to Arizona and returns without pictures of cacti ?

December 21, 2013

©Vahé Kazandjian, 2013

Unplanned Shots

Every photographer has stories about what happened just as he/she was clicking. Unplanned shots are especially frequent in street or candid photography since we try to capture the moment as it happens not as we plan to frame it like in landscape or architectural photography.  Everything is moving in our subjects and we have only that critical instant to freeze it into a picture. Most unplanned shots are “non-keepers”- the story we were hoping to capture is not there anymore, or aesthetically it is no more appealing.  Everyday examples include people walking into the frame, the subject seeing you and looking at you, a dog, a car, a bird or even uninvited shading suddenly hiding all or part of the subject.

Over 40 years of photography I have learned to celebrate rather than lament about the outcomes of many an unplanned shot. Indeed, sometimes the outcome (both as a story and as aesthetics) is better than what I had aimed for! So, as a curious student of experience, I have seen three types of unplanned shots worth celebrating:

1.       Your story, as you wanted to tell, disappears but a new one takes shape that is even better;

2.       A technical “mishap” tells the story better;

3.       You capture your story but find out a pleasant surprise about it after the shot.

Please note that I use mechanical film cameras only, so I have to adjust speed, aperture, focus, shading from light, and minimize camera vibration at slow speed, and manually rewind the film between shots. Some of those “cave man photography” issues may not be as prominent with today’s digital-all miracle light boxes!

I have chosen three pictures to illustrate my points.

I took the first photo at the Night Market in Taipei. I saw the lady with attractive legs and in the background focal plane of two mannequins. Immediately I thought of “Three Mannequins” and clicked. Then I entered the store to tell her that I took a picture and that I appreciate it. When I came close, the lady turned and smiled: HE had a goatee!!! When I developed the film and printed the frame, there was enough evidence of male anatomy to support my story when my friends were incredulous about the details… This is an example of the category #1 above.

The second picture is an oldie: we were visiting a bat cave in Pennsylvania and my son and daughter were as excited as any 7 years old twins can be at the sight of bats flying all around at the mouth of the cave. My son was imitating bats by flapping his arms and there was just enough light for a fast lens, at full aperture, to take a picture.  When I developed the film, I realized that the very slow speed I had used on my Nikon F had also captured the movement in the shape of true wings! The technical “mishap”—the very slow speed, while aesthetically resulted in a blurry and bad contrast picture making it difficult to scan without distorted pixels , made it a new story.

The third picture is a typical street shot, taken in Los Alamos, New Mexico. I saw this man in a park with a cat perched atop his dog. They were “at peace” and I thought his message was one of co-existence and harmony. I immediately took a shot and was quite proud of capturing the very second I wanted. However, when I took my eye off the viewfinder, I saw a mouse atop the cat! It had turned around the cat’s neck just as I was clicking, and the folding of the camera mirror had obscured my view for a split of a second. By now the dog had moved a bit, the cat was looking at me, and the story had disappeared. I was disappointed for not being able to take a picture with the mouse in the frame which was the true message of co-existence the man was displaying in public. To my surprise, when I developed the film, the mouse was there and it was looking at me!

I suppose one has to remain accommodating for all the unplanned events which may be worth celebrating.

December 4, 2013

©Vahé Kazandjian, 2013

Taichung and Bone China

Somehow tea tastes better in Fine Bone China cups. Apart from the ceremony of preparing tea, the delicate rims of these cups give way to the almost imperceptible passage of the tea from cup to lip. I am most attracted to porcelain and Bone China cups where the cobalt blue dominates. It is a mini-vacation to hold these cups and sip on aromatic, bold, dark or green teas.

When in Taiwan, I have learned to appreciate the porcelain cups made in Yingge. Actually it is through such artwork made in Yingge that I learned about the shades of cobalt blue.

I was visiting a hospital in Taichung and on the way there mentioned to my colleague my interest in porcelain and Bone China. I was told that Taichung had small, artisanal factories where unique Bone China is made. I immediately asked for a visit!

After 2 hours of touring the smallest workshop in Taichung I learned about the cattle bones they use to make Bone China. Indeed, these low-iron bones are pulverized and mixed with the porcelain product. Every shop seems to have its own recipe and formula. The bones, the fineness and amount of the pulverized ash, the mixing and firing process all define the clarity and strength of the Bone China. Some cups are so thin-lipped that are translucid!

But, the process produces a lot of fine particle dust from the bone ash and the mixing of the porcelain ingredients. Large factories have well organized ventilation and vacuuming systems to minimize workers’ inhalation of the airborne particles. Not in this small, artisanal workshop. The lady polishing the first-phase porcelain vases was wearing a nuisance mask and had only a fan next to her and another one behind her to expel the dust out of the room. I was in that room for 15 minutes, took a couple of pictures, and learned about the process. When out of the room, the glass of my camera lens was covered in a fine film of white powder.

Picture taken with a Nikon F and Nikkor 50mm 1.4 lens.

December 3, 2013

©Vahé Kazandjian, 2013

Brussels, a Different View

I had seen the clean architecture of Brussels mix joyfully with Gothic and even baroque styles. One cannot dissociate Brussels from chocolate, goose-fat fried potatoes, and professional attire most people wear in the streets. It is a city of international meetings and decisions.

Yet, on this trip, I took with me a 1953 Kiev camera and wanted to find another dimension of the streets in Brussels. I did not know where I was going to find it, so walked for quite a while. It was not easy to get out of the orderly, clean and expensive (!) blocks around the city center. But eventually I found a small corner that I was looking for: graffiti, cosmopolitan and unassuming.

Pictures with a Helios 103 lens and the wonderful flare it produces when used without a sunshade!


November 30, 2013

©Vahé Kazandjian, 2013

Naples, Up-State New York

Naples is a bucolic town in the Finger Lakes Region, Up-State New York. Glacier-era lakes, rolling mountains, deep valleys and big skies. On a good day, the drive to Niagara Falls takes a bit more than an hour.
The region is also home to renowned wineries. When driving near the Finger Lakes, I try to pass by Naples for a few bottles of Port wine.

It was late October and the leaves had mostly fallen. All was rust, green, yellow and red. On a cold morning we decided to drive through Naples. At the town entrance is the iconic local diner "Bob and Ruth's"- it has been there for decades but I had never had breakfast there. This time, the sign outside made me decide "Last day of the season: Closing after lunch". That was it, winter was around the corner and the diner would open again in the spring. So, in we go for breakfast at 10 am.

"Do not check the menu," the waitress told us, "let me tell you what we have left." So we learned that they were out of bacon, sausage, had only one type of bread, no hash brown, but plenty of wild mushrooms... "But we still have everything for the lunch menu," and she pointed at the menu on the board hanging above our heads.
It was too early for lunch and too late for breakfast. So an omelette with a lot of wild mushrooms and coffee seemed the best choice.

As we were eating our omelettes and watching the wind dance with the fallen leaves outside, the waitress came back and announced "Folks, we are running out of ham, bread and fries. I will revise the lunch menu now." As she was taking the board down, a ray of sunshine entered the dark diner and I had to take a picture.

Taken with a 1949 Rolleiflex Automat, at f 3.5 and 1/25th second, ASA 100, and handheld (while chewing on my omelette!)


November 21, 2013

©Vahé Kazandjian, 2013

Veli Brijun, Croatia

There are places I have been repeatedly in the past three decades. After a first visit I learn my way around a city and feel at home. But when I am about to visit a new city or region, I maximize the element of surprise and discovery by not reading about where I am going. A friend told me “if you do not know where you are going, one day you will end up somewhere else”. In fact it has happened only once that I ended up on the wrong domestic flight and discovered it after take-off! But that was before the million checking points we now have at our airports…

I did not know what to expect when I started my trip to Zagreb, Croatia, then a small plane flight to the Brijuni Islands. When the ferry stopped at the port of Veli Brijun, the largest of the 14 islands in the Northern Adriatic Sea, it felt like a port in the Mediterranean- I was home!

The Brijuni Islands have a rich history left upon the rocky shores by many civilizations and countries. The most recent transition was from belonging to Italy to becoming part of Yugoslavia in 1945. Given their splendor, the President Marshal Josip Broz Tito made these islands his personal State Summer Residence. Today they are conference centers and the previously government-owned buildings have been transformed to hotels. But the island is also famous for its zoo (till 2010 there were even two elephants given to Tito as present by Indira Gandhi), ponies, deer roaming free on the islands and birds of all feather. Veli Brijun is also rich with WWI and WWII artifacts and constructions, one of them being the remnants of a fort built by Austria. It was full moon over those walls when I enjoyed a Malvazia wine at midnight.

While one gets an out-of-time feeling walking the shores of the island, there was little for me to photograph (a nature photographer would have saved a million pictures on his memory card!). However, I finally found a memorable frame in the museum of the island where Tito had the habit of immortalizing the dead zoo and islands animals through taxidermy. This pigeon, shown to be released for peace and celebration by Tito, was also soon after its short flight, delivered to the taxidermist!

October 15, 21013

©Vahé Kazandjian, 2013

São Paulo, Brazil

During my first business visit I was asked to not bring a camera because it was strongly advised that I do not walk the streets alone. Especially with a strange looking camera hanging from my neck. So, I stayed in the hotel and went to my meetings as suggested. But I felt like I missed an important aspect of my trip by not seeing the city and walking its streets as I have done in most corners of the globe.

So, on my second visit I brought a Ukrainian Zorkii with me. The logic was that if it gets "permanently borrowed" by someone in the street, I will not feel as bad as if it were my Leica IIIF.

Again, for liability reasons, the inviting company did not want me to walk the streets alone. But knowing my desire to see the city, they gracefully assigned a guide to take me places.

I did not have much personal time and had only one evening free. So, for a couple of hours went to the central market and to the Armenian church. I felt uncomfortable taking pictures, as people were looking at me with discomfort, obviously a visitor, walking around with a guide. Nevertheless, I clicked a few times using zone focusing.

The first picture captures the feeling I had in these rough neighborhoods. This young man was selling used windshield wipers and his posture seemed to tell the story of a less than kind life.

The second picture is from just outside the market. The woman next to the post was "in another sphere".

As always the pictures were taken in B&W on Ilford 100 ASA film. 

©Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2013

Near Budrio, Italy

A few kilometers outside of Bologna, Budrio is one of those small towns one visits only to see how life can stay still when everyone around you has become global and with little identity.
I was told that the authentic Ocarina (a flute like musical instrument which looks like a goose without a head) in terracotta could be bought in Budrio only. Not sure if that is the case but the idea of seeing some of the oldest baroque churches in the region of Emilia Romagna was enough for driving an hour outside of Bologna.

Unfortunately I do not recall the name of this church just outside of Budrio. Like many in that region, it was inconspicuous and humble. There was nothing special for a photographer, except that in a second, the sun inundated the walls of this church and gave the somber feel of the stone walls a color and amazing brightness.

I had my Nikon F2 with a Nikkor 50mm 1.4 hanging from my neck, and wanted to capture that contrast of light, prayer, and history.

©Vahé Kazandjian, 2013

Fighting Mantis

This is not the kind of picture I take. Yet, this mantis had a distinct anthropomorphic attitude. So, as an inhabitant of the street, I decided to include it in my memories of streets I have crossed, or just walked through.

I do not even know why I noticed it. Right there, on the sidewalk. I stopped and it instantly assumed the pugilist posture. I had seen mantis seemingly take the "praying" position, but not a fighting one! Of course all this is a human's optic and no idea what it means for a mantis.

I had my 1970's Ukrainian Salyut-C medium format camera hanging from my neck, and perhaps it was to relieve my muscles from the 4 pounds of steel and glass that I stopped. Amazingly the mantis took this posture for only a few seconds and I was able to click once. Then it returned to looking like a mantis, next to fallen branches, on the sidewalk.

I had forgotten taking this picture. When I looked at the negative in my darkroom, I realized how symmetrical the "arms" were. And how much, suddenly, this 2 inch long critter looked like an extra-terrestrial!!

Maybe it was?

©Vahé Kazandjian, 2013

Fell's Point, Baltimore

Fell's Point is a few blocks of bars and eclectic stores on the ocean. Like many parts of historical Baltimore, it was home to sailors when Baltimore was a vibrant port on the East Cost. Today, it is most alive at night and during holidays. It is part of the city where having a good time is a way of life. At almost any time of the year one can see magnificent yachts and sailboats anchored at the piers and expensive cars slowly driven over the cobble stone streets.

But like in any city, the yachts are not the entire picture. One can also meet folks who are homeless, hungover, or hungry. And while the fish and crabs around Fell's Point do not live in the best of waters, many rely on an old fishing rod and twisted fishing line to secure their dinner.

I took this picture to capture the two facets of this area of Baltimore. While there are no yachts and sailboats in this frame, one can see the ghostly background of expensive apartment buildings on the waterfront. It is my way to show social contrast, on B&W film.

Taken with an early 1970s Olympus OM-1 and a Vivitar 135mm CF short tele lens of the same era.

This one has a story created by the lens itself! I have a relatively rare 1949 Industar-22 lens made in Kazan, Russia. It does have a capricious character and depending on the light, alters the picture in an unpredictable way. This woman seems to perform an act of self-disappearance!

©Vahé Kazandjian, 2013

OPorto

I wanted to post this picture separate from the one under "Lisbon and Porto" because it has a very different feel after a bit of old-fashioned darkroom work on it.

It was just after sunrise as I took a cup of coffee from my hotel and walked to the ocean side. An ancient stone jetty took me closer to the waves, rocks and the iodine-rich, salty effluvia of the Atlantic. There was nothing special for photography though, as the fishermen I had seen the day before were not there. I put my camera down, sat at the very end of the jetty and enjoyed my double espresso.

When I turned to my left, a fisherman was now walking toward the jetty. He was probably 200 meters away and walking fast. I had enough time to frame one picture through a Rollei Tessar 200mm.

Although it was shot on B&W 100 ASA film, I wanted to duplicate the feeling I had looking through the viewfinder. So I did a bit of darkroom work to brig out the rustiness the morning light gave to the old city and stone jetty in the background.

The foot step pattern on the sand tells a story, I think.

©Vahé Kazandjian, 2013
                                                                              

Kyoto

I was in Kyoto for two days, mostly busy at the University. Given my interest in photography, I was given a couple of hours, escorted by a colleague, to go to the market.
It was a more traditional market than the ones I have seen in Tokyo, and I expected that. The exquisite Japanese taste in clothing and detail is what I wanted to capture in this photo, amid the traditional banners and market structure.

I also like to eat street food, as it gets me closer to local culture. I tried different types of tofu and seaweed, but my discovery that day was the fried fish balls. I had tried both the yellow and white versions in Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, but the ones I tried in Kyoto were the absolute best. The white fish ball, scortchingly hot, enticed my senses wonderfully.

I returned to Tokyo by train, and on the way back Mount Fuji was majestically clear that day. Not a single cloud and the mountain was all colour. The man next to me noticed that I was the only one not taking pictures and asked why?

"I take only B&W pictures" I replied. "It does not do justice to the mountain when all in colour. Maybe next time when it is raining and the mountain is half in fog."

©Vahé Kazandjian, 2013

Cape Town, South Africa

A small piece of paradise, this town is. At the junction of two oceans, it has as much variety in is topography as its demographics. To anyone holding a camera it offers compositions and outlooks that are very unique.

But to a street photographer using only B&W film, the ocean, beaches and colourful houses are not the primary focus. My quest for a composition that also tells a story about Cape Town was the challenge during last year's trip.

The first is a composition of horizontal and vertical lines, the ocean in the background and a social moment in the marina. The platinum-blond woman provided the perfect contrast, as well as the visual disruption through the patterns of her bag. I did some dodging in the darkroom to enhance her presence.

The second picture is a typical street shot: I saw the hat-seller lady walk on the beach and hoped to frame her between the couple having lunch. While this was planned on my part, the perfect positioning of the pigeon atop her was not! And that is what those of us still using film and 1950's mechanical cameras hope to achieve based on what H. Bresson called "le moment decisif" or the deciding moment: to frame and click just when all actors and elements are about to tell a story.

Of course the lighting was much less than optimal: against the sun and reflections from the sea and sand. But I did not think about the technical quality of the picture, just the story it may tell. Both pictures taken with a Mamiya 645 1000s and a Mamiya-Sekor 80mm 1.9 lens. The film was ASA 100.

©Vahé Kazandjian, 2013

Streets Belong to Dogs, Too

I have always looked at streets as a place for people. Well, that may not be totally correct given how many people are at the other end of a leash. Other than cute puppy pictures, I find it difficult to take pictures of dogs as part of my street photography. The traditional search for "master looking like his dog" does not excite me.
I have however taken a few dog pictures in an attempt to define a social moment. Be that an old bulldog waiting for his master who is visiting a shop, or a proud mix-of-a-dog wearing a painter's beret at a dog show, I always try to make the dog a representative of the story rather than the subject of a photograph.

The first photo was taken with an Ukrainian Salyut medium format camera and an expired Chinese Lucky film. The defects on the negative seem to make the peaceful slumber of these two dogs even more peaceful. Picture taken on a lake in Virginia.
The second is that famous bulldog waiting for his master. Don't you have the feeling that he has gone through this experience before? Picture from Fells Point, Maryland.
The third is from a Baltimore dog show. There is something cocky in that little dog's eyes, especially given the poster behind him!
The final one is about serenity and love. The wipers on the car seem to provide a perfect outlook to the snowy weekend. A split-second clicking on my Mamiya 645 to capture the tenderness. Taken in Columbia, Maryland.

©Vahé Kazandjian, 2013

Le Petit Prince of Columbia, Maryland

There are books where we have found a piece of ourselves, but even more, that we have rediscovered ourselves when we read them again, years later. Some of these books seem simple at first; a fairy tale, a story easily read. Then, we pass through life, through streets and people, and one morning we wake up with the name of a book on our mind. A book we have read many years ago. We read it in French, in English, in Mandarin. And we look for that book once more.

Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery is one of these books. It is philosophical, it is dreamy, it is about love, but mostly it is about responsibility. In short, it is pure Zen.
I re-read that book in French many times, sometimes by pure chance of finding it near me, or after looking for it. The line that has stayed with me is: "Men have forgotten this truth." said the fox. "But you must not forget it. You become responsible. forever, for what you have tamed."

I took this picture on a cold, snowy day with a Pentax 1000. The moment I saw the dog getting closer to the young man, I thought about the fox and the Little Prince. And I waited for the millisecond when the "fox" would tell the line above. I am sure that is exactly what it said!

©Vahé Kazandjian, 2013

Madrid

A cloudy day in Madrid. I was walking around with my Nikon F3 and did not take pictures for a long while. On rainy and cloudy days people seem in a hurry and often the crowd becomes an amorphous flow of human bodies with no individual characteristics.

Then, I heard almost a howling sound behind me, to my right. I turned and saw this man leafing through a magazine where pictures of Adonis's were shown full page. The howling was perhaps his appreciation of the photos, or could it have been his lament for years gone by? No matter, it was a most unusual moment. I waited till he turned another page to include the picture of a handsome man, then clicked.

It is slightly off-focus because I had opened the lens to 1.4 and did not have much time for framing as he was going through the pages fast!

©Vahé Kazandjian, 2013

Kisses and Cities

It is impossible not to stop and notice a tender embrace when walking the streets. The challenge for the photographer is not to be a voyeur, but find the angle to enhance the context of a street picture by including the kiss.
I rarely use any lens other than a 50 mm for 35mm format, although when shot on medium format film (hence 80 mm lens), I can enlarge parts of the negative during darkroom work to the limits of a frame shot with a telephoto lens. In my world of old-time photography, darkroom work is what transforms a picture into a photo worth framing.

I decided to do a small collage of kisses from different cities. My goal was to show a characteristic street kiss representing the mentality of the country. Did I succeed? You decide.

The last picture is a bit of a challenge to decipher at first look. I took it from the cable car going up the mountain at Mont Tremblant. We were passing over expensive summer homes with swimming pools and I saw this couple in a romantic mood, in the middle of the pool. Consider it an aerial picture, and if you look closely going right to left, you will notice the head, shoulders and the arms of the woman. Her legs are reflected under the water. I like this picture for its visual challenge and it made it as the cover of my last poetry book "Aromance: The aroma of romance".

From top to bottom the cities are: Ferrara, Barcelona, Paris, Oporto, Vienna, New York City and Mont Tremblant, Canada.

©Vahé Kazandjian, 2013

Mexico City

It was a quick 2-day trip to Mexico City and I had my trusty 1954 Kiev-2 rangefinder in my backpack. At the airport, I dropped my bag but did not think much about it as the camera had survived rough travels across continents for years. After work hours, I walked the streets for a short while and after 4 frames, the camera jammed! And it is still jammed today, but I keep it for memories.
This is the only one I printed. It has all the imperfections an-about-to-quit-Kiev camera can produce. But it does have a comforting and happy story. It seems to capture what I have often seen in Latin and South American countries: a genuine capability to enjoy the moment, no matter how little such an attitude may require. Hanging out, chatting on the street corner is a wonderful social behavior.
In addition to the picture telling a story, the two men standing up are also in a dialogue - reminds me of the picture on this blog's opening page of the two elderly men in Bilbao.
Maybe that hints to a composition I like to find for my photos...

©Vahé Kazandjian, 2013

Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico

Sometimes empty streets tell the story of its people, especially when you know they are looking at you from behind the curtains or dark, small windows since they do not want their pictures taken.
A pueblo is a North American Indian village and New Mexico is the home of pueblos. Most are still inhabited and the pueblo of Acoma is a continuously inhabited village in the region, perhaps since the 8th century. Among the favorite visiting places of tourists, this village is similar to others in its offering of pottery, silver jewelry, and picturesque hiking. Indeed, the village is built on an enormous rock which one has to climb through narrow passes where only one person fits at a time.
During the day people stay inside avoiding the desert heat and makes the pueblo look deserted.
Taken with a Nikon F2 and a Nikkor 24mm 2.8 lens.

©Vahé Kazandjian, 2013

Amsterdam

For French speakers, Amsterdam is the penultimate port where the drama of life is depicted in Jacques Brel's famous song. For others Amsterdam is where anything goes. And for the rest of the world Amsterdam is dams, raw herring with onions, music, great food and beer.
And all of these characters of the city have been captured in songs, on film and in history. On my many trips to Amsterdam, I have tried to find an angle that would be less observed and a picture composed to reflect the poly-culturality of this amazing city.
This one may come close to my goal: Tibetan musicians were playing their zen music in a tunnel linking two major streets in the center of Amsterdam. Contre-jour, wanted to get the feel of the tunnel, the arches, the musicians. After waiting a few seconds, the musicians stopped playing, put their instruments down, and I thought I missed my shot. Then a group walked through the sunny entrance giving that eerie feel of aliens... And it felt like the Tibetan musical cords had called them in!

The second picture is of the same tunnel, taken later in the day. When people are gone, there is no street photography! It also makes the point, I think, that anticipating or immediately reacting to a natural composition is the first requirement of street compared to landscape photography where you have time to compose, retake, and experiment with light. When you are walking the streets and if you "see" a story, it does not matter what camera or what lens you have. All that matters is that you have a camera with you!
Taken with a Nikon F and Nikkor 50mm 1.4 lens.

©Vahé Kazandjian, 2013

Siena

Siena is among the most visited cities in Italy. Surrounded by Tuscan landscape, it is a charming medieval city with a distinct character. In addition to the medieval Duomo, it has a shell-shaped city center the Piazza del Campo. Surrounded by trattoria and bars, it is the spot for soaking sun rays on a lazy afternoon.
Siena is also known for its horse race, the Palio. Held twice a year, horses are raced around the Piazza del Campo ridden bareback and carrying the code of arms of the various districts in and around Siena. It is more than a horse race, I was told it is like the passionate competition one would equate with a football Derby match in Europe,
I took this picture on the Piazza del Campo, where a Japanese bride was photo-testing her gown. Of course the background of her picture was the Duomo and its adjacent tower. While bridal pictures lend themselves to natural B&W capturing, they can also be, well, boring.... I did wait for a few minutes to capture an unposed moment, and it did come when the photographer, a Japanese young man wearing an expensive Italian suit, turned his camera around and started endlessly clicking for photos of tourists.
The bride gave up posing, and I clicked.
Taken with a Minolta Autocord Twin Lens Reflex camera.

©Vahé Kazandjian, 2013

Nazaré

Nazare is a lovely small Portuguese town with magnificent cliffs over the ocean. There is a table top rock protruding out of the summit of the tallest cliff and legend has it that a warrior, riding his horse, jumped from that rock to the ocean chasing a departing ship. Legends have a way of interpreting what we cannot understand!
Fishing is among the main activities and I assumed this lady was a fisherman's wife. Well, she was selling fresh sardines on a warm day.
When I looked over the cliff, a couple was walking on what it seemed a popular sandy beach. They were more than 500 meter away and down from where I stood. I had my Nikon F2 and the 1969 Nikkor-Q 200mm f4 tele lens. The softness of the picture may represent the gentle dialogue the couple was having.

©Vahé Kazandjian, 2013

Bilbao

Perhaps the most old-fashion street picture I have taken in the past few years. The crowd is there with its many faces celebrating the good performance of a street music band. The man having a drink was the violinist and he was indeed quite good.
The negative has been "tortured" by time and darkroom chemicals, yet the grain and imperfections give it an oldness which goes well with B&W photography. In fact, looking at the sideburns of the man in the far left of the frame, one could have thought this was from the 1970s.  A simple illusion leading to 20 years' error in estimating the date!
Taken with a Nikon F and a Nikkor 105mm 2.5 lens.

©Vahé Kazandjian, 2013