Istanbul, Turkey

Last night, as I was watching the images on TV about events in Istanbul, I seemed to recognize a monument on Taksim Square. And I was surprised, since the only time I have been in Istanbul was 55 years ago, then a young lad in shorts, buzz cut hair, and a Brownie camera in my hands!

… When my mother passed, I discovered how much she had kept in boxes, bags, and small suitcases. Nothing was thrown away from the first poem I wrote, my first camera the Brownie I took on that trip to Istanbul, and miles of negative strips of film I had taken during my teenage years.

I knew where the Brownie and the negatives were, so this morning decided to look at these strips.

It is an amazing feeling to spend hours looking through a magnifying loop at frames after frames and somehow learn more about myself. Perhaps it was a self-conducted introspection where decades from my early life, in the shape of still moments on 127mm film negatives paraded at a variable pace. It was variable since I stopped on some frames longer because of faint memories emerged from forgotten corners of my right brain.

… Many of the film strips are irreversibly damaged by time and poor storage. But one frame caught my attention. It is of the central memorial monument in the Square and the angle of capture is quite dramatic. Especially for a 5 year old boy holding a Brownie! But while the monument is still there today, I am curious if the bank building in the background is. Could this be a “historic” photo?

No matter, I was able to scan the negative and decided to post it. This may be one of my first street photographs, so in that sense, after 60 years, it is historic for me….

July 16, 2016        

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2016

PS/ A year or so ago I bought a film negative scanner to digitally archive the miles of negative strips my mom and then I have kept. It is not my favorite way of archiving, but calculated that if I were to try printing each strip’s frames in my darkroom an average of 4 hours a day, I would need to live to the ripe age of 321 to complete the project. And, even if I do, I am not sure they will still be making darkroom chemicals and photographic paper in the year 2286!!

PS2/ Here is my Baby Brownie Special, made by Kodak in Rochester NY. I fing the 60 years' old dust on it absolutely charming!