Buildings that Tell a Story – from Singapore to Balaton, Hungary

As a street photographer eager to capture people in their cultural setting and daily activities, it is rare that I find myself in a city where people do not seem to be “acting up”. But it happens, and in times like that I try to capture the environment through an angle that can tell a story about the people.

I suppose that can be street photography in reverse.

Two places I have been, more than once where I have had a tough time photographing people. One was Singapore, the one-city country where the pace of life is to “choreographed” for a photographer. Nothing unusual seems to happen in the streets! On one trip, I decided to take a few photos in Singapore’s Little India. The main artery is Serangoon Road which was built in the early 1800s and passes through Singapore's Little India. It also served as a highway between town and the Serangoon harbor in the northeast.

Again, nothing unusual happened on that extremely busy road that day. So, I decided to capture a feel of Little India through the door of a tailor’s shop. The wide-open diaphragm of my Nikon F lens was able to delineate the dress inside the dark room and at the same time gave a dreamy feel of the building’s outside through overexposure.

In some way, this is the quietest moment I have experienced on Serangoon Road!

My second challenging experience as a street photographer was in Balaton, Hungary. The lake is the largest freshwater lake in the Transdanubian region of Hungary and the largest lake in Central Europe. I stayed in a conference center which was part of the Soviet Politburo’s vacation destination a few decades ago. It was all concrete and square angles.

Yes, the lake is beautiful and the beaches full of people, but for me it was very asceptic. So, I looked around for a non-scripted angle and ended up with a photo of a building with character.

Of course, these two photos may not reflect what others have experienced in these environments, but they do testify to my moments in these two settings.

January28, 2018

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2018

Lisbon Daily Moments

Found a couple of negatives in my "forgotten filmstrips shoe box" and played with them in my darkroom this morning. They are from Lisbon and the first one may have a unique angle of view.

I took this one from my hotel room at the Alif Hotel. I have stayed a few times and liked the fact that it was close to the bull fighting arena, the Campo Pequeno. Actually in Portugal the bull fight is really not a fight for life as in Spain. It is called tourada and is an athletic challenge between the fighters and the bulls. But no bull is killed in the fight.

When I was looking out of my room window, I saw this man on the spiral stairs. The cloths hanging to dry, the stairs, the man smoking a cigarette and the overall feel of the building had simplicity and a mystery.

This second photo is also from Lisbon, but I do not recall the name of the neighborhood. This time the buildings are in full sun and the woman sitting on the chair always reminds me of the Mediterranean tradition of a neighborhood. Indeed, while Portugal is not on the Mediterranean sea (but the Atlantic ocean) it is in the Mediterranean region and historically has been influenced by Mediterranean cultures, food, lifestyle and yes, attitude.

That is in part why I have always felt “at home” in Portugal.

January20, 2018

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2018

Taipei As Few See It

I worked in Taiwan on various healthcare projects and academic endeavors for a decade. Like with many countries in South East Asia, I found cultural similarities but an identity in attitude that is very specific to each country and cities in those countries.

I know Taipei quite well as it was the focal city of my visits and work. If I have to say what comes to my mind as initial and overwhelming characteristic, I would say “busy”. Especially the streets. Especially at night. People, motorcycles and cars take every inch of navigable space and all in a delightful and peaceful harmony.

So, I decided to take a picture of Taipei that would be atypical. During my lunch break of a conference, I took my Mamiya 645 in search of such a shot. Street level photos always are about traffic and large numbers of people. So for this one I perched myself on one of the pedestrian bridges over the main artery waiting for that moment.

But what was I looking for?

It suddenly happened. For an unknown reason there was an open space in the traffic file! Not a small space, but there were no cars, scooters an people jamming the street. So I took a shot.

When I was printing it, I wanted to increase the surreal feeling even more. So I underexposed the photographic paper to a fraction of what I usually like. Indeed, my favorite exposure time is about 1.15 minute. In this case, I exposed it for only 20 seconds. It is not possible to do so with 35mm film, but 120mm captures amazing detail and can yield surprising prints.

… When I look at this photo I wonder “is this a reflection of Taipei at noon?” And, as with any photo the answer is always “yes” because I cannot capture what is not there. I can only place reality on a two-by-two dimension. But what I can do is to capture that which many do not see or happens rarely.

Still, a rare event is part of reality.

January 16, 2018

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2018

Why Did She Look Back 15 Years Later?

It snowed on the mountain. On days like this I usually catch up with the much needed organization of my art studio. It is a place where nowadays sculpting, painting, photography and writing seem to co-exist, although without occasional cleaning it is easy to see a rabbit skin find its way to the painting area, or pieces of wood I collect from the desert pile up to make entire areas impassable.

So, I decided to clean a few shelves to store new materials. I came across a box of negatives and prints that I have been carrying with me now for a decade or more from state to state, and house to house.

It was time to dedicate a few hours to the content of the box.

.. Most of the negative strips have a sticker at the end such as “France 2009” or “Mexico”. But many do not. I eye-scanned the strips against a table lamp and recognized most of them. Then looked through the printed photos.

All of them are 8x10 and of course B&W. More importantly all of them are “seconds”, as I rarely throw away a print. I feel like my goal has always been to capture a moment, and even prints that are not technically or aesthetically as good as I like them, they still capture that moment.

So, out of many I recalled and recognized, I found a few that totally surprised me! Truly, I have no recollection of these shots, although I remember where and how they were taken because other shots from these days made it to my books, blogs and exhibits.

The most delightful ones were of street mimes from Barcelona. The prints were not well-done, but I saw potential in the negatives that I had not had taken time to explore 15 years ago.

So, got the negatives dusted and cleaned, loaded the strip on the tray on my 1950s Hansa enlarger, and decided to spend the morning printing.

Photo One: This was that barrio where the mimes were performing. I had no memories of this moment till I looked at the print. Clearly it was a typical afternoon when people were enjoying a glass of wine and a perfect place for mimes to show their talent.

Photo Two: This close up has bad lens aperture and speed, since the face of the woman on the forefront is washed out while the other one’s is too dark.  But the expression is there, and I decided to dodge and burn. After a few tries, I called it the “Spanish Yin and Yang”!

Photo Three: This one has a bad composition but I saw how the sequence had evolved (will explain in a minute.) A #4 filter under the enlarger lens gave better tonal distribution and contrast.

Now, about the sequence. The 4^th negative was a shot that has been appreciated by viewers around the world. It is the following:

So, now after 15 years I came to recall and realize how that street photography session took place. It seems that I walked around the barrio, took a close up, and waited for them to get into the full act of carrying umbrellas side by side.

… One question remains: in the last photo, did the woman on the left purposefully turn around to help me with the shot?

That, I will never know!

January 14, 2018

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2018

PS/ This is my 200^th entry on this blog and the first one of 2018….