wow – its been months since my last post. finally i’m back from the army. i wish i had the opportunity to use my camera there. naturally it was strictly forbidden. it was so funny to witness a bunch of grown up men gather, -in the name of serving the country- form an artificial reign, role play with that ridiculous attitude of no earthly use and call this military. ok, not to bore you with these endless discussions, it was a total waste of time.

starting with the pre-army shots. i feel like its been ages since those days. i really don’t remember what the topic was. so i just submit them more or less in chronological order. looks like a weekend visit to ankara.

at my father’s atelier

 

 

is that cinar?

 

he was preparing for the exhibition at milli reasurans

 

which i missed, being under arms

 

the bathroom of the atelier

 

collecting strange closets from all over the world

 

 

he uses power wash as a part of the process

 

 

extending his playground

 

 

 

dad, me, and the acrylic splash on my shirt

 

 

 

everything is illuminated! i was there to make a preliminary photo shoot of the rock band cicibebe for their upcoming album, last nail in the coffin.

 

some familier faces of the band, erdem from high school

 

and uni classmate kivanc, look how fragile he is

 

engin

 

 

 

a focal length of 35mm can capture unwanted details

 

after years of gigging in ankara pubs, finally they end up with an album. the interesting part is that the released cd was empty so one can download and burn the mp3s in it. thus they made a remarkable impact on the music community, stating that there’s no difference left between a music cd and an empty cd

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

back to istanbul. i’m seriously planning to start a series of kitchens in the night. cigdem’s

 

title of a poem in a street writing.. something you can expect from cihangir

 

on the set of tadelle commercial.. i was responsible for taking some reference photos and preparing the hdr image to use in visual effects

 

 

 

where i met this nice mr.

 

director of photographer tobias hochstein from israel. he was there for three days, setting up a unique look for the commercial. he noticed my leica, took out his leica mp and we had two days of nice chat. hope to see you again in turkey, mate!

 

 

 

the muscle man was going to put a baby to sleep in the shot. they bring him a fake one for practicing

 

toby and the director, ozer feyzioglu

 

the outside shootings

 

 

van herpen was passing by

 

 

guy taking notes about each take

 

we made an agreement with erkan and sertac, to visit all of the big stadiums in istanbul before i leave for the army. it was a good excuse for me to see arsenal in the flesh.

 

 

 

ramsey scores. poor sertac

 

desperately trying to spend the last days with the beloved ones, eskisehir

 

dad wearing cinar’s trapper hat

 

 

watching metoroporisu

 

having fun in the car

 

 

mom

 

 

i have no idea where this photo came out of, should be from three or four rolls before, sister making up

 

dad and amelie working on the catalogue of the exhibition, milli reasurans

 

and that was my last shot before the 6-month separation.

…

may 2009. i’m back

 

 

i miss the escalators

 

 

we gave a visit to umut’s new flat with cigdem

 

looking for his no-name cat

 

still looking for

 

gotcha!

 

time to leave for some cheap house food outside

 

eskisehir.. sister at her office

 

soo grown up cinar at their new place

 

looks like he’s obsessed with power rangers when i was away

 

 

 

cinar shooting me

 

 

 

shooting the rangers

 

desperately thinking

 

after putting him to sleep,

 

i went to the glass department which mustafa abi is the head of

 

dealing with some erasmus students

 

 

going through some students’ assignments. sis was advising him to keep it for the end of year exhibition, off the record

 

 

back to home. cinar and mom playing doctor-patient game

 

 

 

 

showing the power rangers poster

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

next day, watching spiderman on dvd

 

and on the way to the real doc

 

showing his scratch to him

 

at kent park

 

an artificial beach built on porsuk river

 

headed to neo to eat some walnut lahmacun

 

 

he loves itouch!

 

time to turn back to istanbul

 

cinar getting upset just before i leave. i doubt it’s because he’s not on the train, though

 

byee!

we were on a one week trip at italy. full of tourists at this time of the year. following shots mostly exposed at venice, florence, rome and naples with the ordinary setting of trix at 1600 and developed in xtol 1:1, 17,5 minutes at 21°C. we had this ultra fine wheather on the contrary, i had a chance to fully experience the nd filter

 

 

traditional venetian masks everywhere

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

it’s too late, she has to buy it now

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

on our way to florence

 

 

 

 

 

 

guy recording the caricaturists at piazza del duomo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

around accademia and duomo in the back, about where they claim that there are 463 steps to the top, which is a huge lie. i probably lost 3 kilos climbing

 

 

i have no idea what that reflection on the negative is. looks like someone sabsabotaged my shot

 

 

börç.

 

 

we decided go to pisa by train to get rid of the tour community

 

 

 

 

 

pisa madness

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

back to florence

 

 

piazza delgi uffizi

 

 

on our way to rome

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

santa maria in trastevere, interreligious activity

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the cute tiber island

 

 

 

 

killing time at piazza di spagna

 

 

an experimental toilet i bumped into at a stop over before pompei trip, what you step is what you pee

 

napoli, pretty much like istanbul, full of chaos

 

 

 

 

 

back to rome, rather out of focus, i like the way his shoes look though

 

 

those men in suits and their helmets on, going to work by scooters. would be a very conflict scene in turkey

 

 

musei capitolini

 

 

 

ciao!

last month we were in ankara for the wedding of senemk and erhan,
i was there once again to irritate the pro photographers of the place

 

i was just waiting for the pose instructions to come to an end, when guy with the camcorder saw my M and asked me to take a look at it. looked over for about a minute and said hmm, it’s old!

 

 

 

 

we had some nice ambience in the terrace

 

 

aaaaa!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

taking to the stage with gulum benim from ibrahim tatlises

 

 

 

ayten & ufuk

 

some shots from here and there

 

 

 

ayten

 

 

ayca at cigdem’s

 

we finally organized the photos including some of the above and made some prints as a wedding gift

 

 

waiting for the foam to go away

 

okay, the idea was nothing new but it was funny that they combined some crap house cleaning tools to make it

 

 

close-up for better understanding

 

 

guy said they’re using a different technique coming from cesme..

 

lowering the total absorption time down to 2 seconds

 

wandering around the stadium

 

nd8 filter on

 

mecidiyekoy covered in black. nice.

 

 

 

the guy was talking about the history of metallica

 

 

 

 

and finishing with some fresh chewing gum tattoos