On a recent trip to Saudi Arabia, I was told that
street photography was not a national pastime.
Further, in a country where the latest and grandest of all products are
actively sought, my 1960s Minolta Autocord Twin Lens Reflex camera would be an
even more singular oddity than my interest in street photography. So I was
told.
I had hardly time to find out, though. Teaching at
the King Saud University and King Khaled University hospital in Riyadh, I did
not have the time for any photography. Except one Saturday when in the middle
of a scorching hot day, decided to see Riyadh.
Needless to say, there were very few people in the
streets, as it is after sunset that the weather is more clement for being out.
But I had a couple of ideas for my trip.
First, I wanted to see the Kingdom Center. I had
seen images, and its architecture seemed most unusual. But most pictures I had
seen were taken with a telephoto and I wondered how one would capture the tower
with a 50mm lens.
Second, I wanted to visit the less-affluent sections
of the city to have a feel of the diversity.
And I was able to do both.
…. According to Wikipedia, “the Kingdom tower is a 302.3 m (992 ft) skyscraper. It is the world's third tallest building with a hole after the Shanghai World Financial Center and the Tuntex Sky Tower in Taiwan. The building is situated on 100,000 square metres site with car parking for 3,000 vehicles.”
Of course, the “hole”
is the intriguing part. What does it represent? The pictures I had seen did not
help me decide. So, I went to the bottom
of this majestic structure and looked up.
And it hit me! From my angle, it looked like a male Bedouin without a face!! Possible? Here
is what I saw, and my 50mm lens did as well:
I was not sure if it was the intent of the architect
Richard Tenguerian, and Armenian born in Aleppo, Syria, to depict the
silhouette of a Bedouin via this 992 ft tower. But it sure looked as such to
me.
… Then I went to the less-affluent parts around the
city. Again there were very few people in the streets but these three ladies,
next to a stroller and under the street sign gave me the opportunity to
characterize what I saw.
Amazingly, a week later, when I developed the medium
format film in my darkroom and looked at the wet negatives under the red studio
light, I immediately saw the shapes of the tower in the posture of the first
lady next to the stroller. Do you?
… But there was something else brewing in my
mind. I am not an architectural forms
photographer, but years ago I had taken a picture of the Twin Towers in New York,
and I realized that the Kingdom Center was the only other picture of a tower I
had ever taken. The Twin Towers picture
I took, with a 1969 Nikon F and Nikkor-Q 200mm lens, was at sunset and had
large birds flying by it. I took it from the top of Empire State Building, Midtown
Manhattan in 1999. Thinking back about it, the birds seem to have a chilling
prediction of the towers’ fate!!
So, I went back to find that picture. The 35mm negative showed scratches but I did not correct or eliminate. Here it is:
This
picture of the Twin Towers was published (hence has a registered copyright) on
page 92 of my book “Alla Prima” (2002)
published by the American Literary Press. The ISBN is 1-56167-724-8 at The United
States Library of Congress.
… I could not resist thinking what would have
happened if the Twin Towers had a “hole” in their design like the Kingdom
Center…
May 13, 2014
© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2014
The following Wikipedia link gives more details and
a picture of the Kingdom Center
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_Centre
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