Pozometre

Some portraits I did recently

2011-12-24T02:32:00.006+02:00

Hopa case: the young leftists are released

2011-12-10T00:41:00.014+02:00

A few thousand supporters gathered outside Ankara's courthouse during the first trial of 28 leftist young men and women, most of whom are university students. 22 of them were jailed after they protested a police crackdown on anti-government demonstrators in the Black Sea town of Hopa in June. The death of Metin Lokumcu, a retired teacher and an environmental activist, under a police tear-gas attack in Hopa, triggered the clash between the protesters and the police on the same day in downtown Ankara. The court decided today to release the 22 defendants who had been under arrest for about 6 months.

Here are some photographs I took today (Dec. 9) outside the courthouse:

TKP is the abbreviation for the Turkish Communist Party. "Ankara Adalet Sarayi" literally means Ankara Justice Palace. TKP's main committee made a statement referring to that: "AKP [the governing party] built Europe's largest justice palaces [courthouses]; justice coming from a palace shall sink into the ground. We want the justice of the people."

Various vehicles of the police were parked in the streets surrounding the courthouse. This armored vehicle was right in front of a mosque. During the busy Friday prayer, part of the congregation had to pray outside. [Please note that the congregation had nothing to do with the leftist demonstration.]

*Turkish leftists often define the governing AKP's policies as fascist. [The visual in the picture has nothing to do with neo-nazism or white supremacy.]

The demonstrators put on a play which narrated the incidents in Hopa and Ankara.

The portraits in the background belong to some of the leftist activists under arrest.

The supporters spent the whole day outside the courthouse until the trial adjourned. As the sun went down, they built bonfires to stay warm.

Eid Al-Adha, the Muslim festival of sacrifice

2011-11-07T04:36:00.003+02:00

Here are some photographs I took during Eid Al-Adha, the Muslim festival of sacrifice in Muhye, Ankara, Turkey, Sunday, Nov. 6, 2011.

For detailed captions, click here to visit my website.

Ercis earthquake

2011-10-30T03:05:00.001+03:00

In Ercis, the city hit worst by the 7.2 magnitude earthquake that struck eastern Turkey on October 23, 80 multistory buildings were completely destroyed. According to the official count, at least 582 people were killed by the earthquake, 2608 were injured. Of the total, 455 were killed in Ercis, a town of nearly 100,000 people.

188 people were rescued from rubble.

Gozde Bahar, a 27-year-old teacher of English, was rescued 67 hours after the earthquake. When they brought Ms. Bahar to the field hospital in Ercis, her heart stopped, but the doctors were able to revive her. In the picture above, they were putting her into an ambulance headed for further medical care at Van hospital, where she later died. Young teachers accounted for more than one in 10 victims in Ercis, with 56 killed.

For more pictures, please visit my portfolio website.

Turkish fishermen: new edit

2011-09-16T09:27:00.002+03:00

I revisited the outtakes of my Turkish fishermen story and based on feedback I got from Riccardo Venturi, I came up with a new edit. Please click here (or on the photograph below) to check it out:

A conscript soldier's send-off

2011-09-10T01:10:00.007+03:00

Family members pose for pictures with the conscript soldier (center, with red scarf) at Esenler Bus Terminal in Istanbul, Turkey. I took the picture from inside a bus to Ankara. The terminal was packed with people sending off these young men. The police did nothing to facilitate the traffic; they were just watching, total chaos! The ride from where we were to the exit gates of the terminal (about 300 yards) took 45 minutes! Anyway, this picture pretty much summed up my observations during my morning walk around the back streets of Bayrampasa, apparently a quite conservative neighborhood. References to Islam were all over the place. The hamam (Turkish bath), where I took a bath, for instance, welcomed me with a big sign saying "Sovereignty belongs to Allah."

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the mastermind of Turkish secularism and the founder of the Republic of Turkey, on the other hand, said "Sovereignty belongs unconditionally to the nation," and this is also the first sentence of the 6th article of the Turkish constitution today. Under the AK government, the Turkish society seems to be becoming more conservative. If you are wondering, the "Lüks (luxurious) AK" print in the top right corner is a happy coincidence.

More pictures from Vakifli, Turkey's last ethnic Armenian village

2011-08-27T00:47:00.011+03:00

These are some of my outtakes from the rest of my time in Vakifli. For the first set of pictures I posted, please see the previous blog entry.

The village headman Berc Kartun walks back to the tea house. He's seen through the fences of the church. The shiny circles below are the bottoms of the pots used for Kashkak/Harissa cookout. (The following four pictures cover the timespan of the cookout. They started fixing it Saturday afternoon. Kashkak/Harissa was ready to be served Sunday morning.)

***

The Turkish soldier seen through a window of the church is on duty to provide protection. Gendarmerie is responsible for security in the area. The following three pictures are from the morning service.

***

Aram Atesyan (center), the representative of the Armenian Patriarch in Istanbul, came down to Vakifli to take part in the festival.

A Turkish Armenian boy plays outside the church.

Atesyan blesses the grapes.

A member of the congregation holds some blessed grapes.

I took this Mediterranean landscape on the way back to my motel room. It's only a few kilometers away from Vakifli.

Vakifli, Turkey's last ethnic Armenian village

2011-08-13T01:13:00.002+03:00

I'm currently visiting Vakifli, Turkey's last ethnic Armenian village. Geographically, it's not too far from Syrian refugee camps. I decided to take a photo trip and meet people. I'll photograph the Feast of the Assumption of St. Mary and the Blessing of the Grapes. Because of the upcoming festival, there are many visitors in the village. Most of them are originally from around here but now live in the bigger cities of Turkey or abroad. This time of the year, as you see in some of these pictures, visitors bring youth and movement. Vakifli's population, on the other hand, is getting older. According to what I was told, there hasn't been a wedding within the last five years. There are about 100 ethnic Armenians living in the village. Some of the people I talked to are worried about Vakifli's future with regard to sustaining their community.

Avedis Demirci, the oldest person in Vakifli, was born in 1914. He is very talkative and friendly. He spends his time resting in the balcony.

Friday night, a barbecue party was organized for the visitors from out of town. Arda from Sivas takes plates of Hummus to serve the tables.

Jak from Mersin spent most of the night grilling wild boar meat on skewers for the guests.

Some photos from a friend's henna night

2011-05-06T01:33:00.002+03:00

*Henna night is a traditional ceremony in Turkey, hosted by the bride's family before the wedding. Women gather around the bride, sing folks songs and dye theirs and the bride's hands with henna.

ANZAC Day Services 2011, Gallipoli, Turkey

2011-04-28T01:18:00.001+03:00

Snow day in Ankara

2011-03-09T23:59:00.002+02:00

Personal history of digital photography :)

2011-02-09T00:11:00.004+02:00

I snapped this photo of the Evzons; guards in front of the Greek Parliament, at Syntagma Square in Athens, Greece, in November 2001. For the trip, I borrowed my dad's 1.2 megapixel Sony point and shoot. I just checked and today you can buy one of those Cybershot DSC-S30's for about $40 on Amazon. Now, my cellphone has higher resolution.

I wanted to fit as many pictures as possible into my 4 megabyte (WOW!) memory stick, so this photo wasn't even taken at maximum resolution (yeah, very smart but I learned from my mistakes; nowadays I shoot RAW when I can.)

Son and father

2011-01-30T19:27:00.000+02:00

Marching for justice

2011-01-19T21:50:00.002+02:00

Demonstrators commemorate Hrant Dink, a Turkish journalist of Armenian origin who was killed by an ultra-nationalist gunman 4 years ago. (Ankara, January 19, 2011)

Saturdaily

2010-12-19T00:30:00.002+02:00

Shot four assignments on half a simit (Turkish bagel) and two cubes of tea sugar... Here's a selection from the first three assignments:

Ziraat Bankasi beat Milli Piyango 3-1 in the men's 1st league volleyball game.

Labourers of the State Tobacco and Liquor Company protested the government once again and commemorated their colleague who was killed by a drunk driver last February. Uysal was hit by a luxurious SUV during his stay in tents in downtown Ankara to protest the government.

Republican People's Party (CHP) had their 15th Extraordinary Convention. I was asked to see what was outside the basketball arena they rented.

A few shots from Konya

2010-12-18T22:40:00.002+02:00

A passer-by near Ince Minaret...

Ladies dancing the "halay" in a live music cafe...

Ihsan posing with dried ocras...

Konya Seker labourers taking a break from planting trees...

The labourers posing for a group portrait...

A funeral, figure skating and some snow

2010-12-13T23:20:00.002+02:00

Journalist and author Can Dundar's father Ali Riza Dundar has passed away.

A few pictures from this year's Turkish Figure Skating Championships in Ankara:

The first snow of the season in Ankara with Anitkabir, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's mausoleum in the background... A picture I took through my car's window on the way to work and yes, I did park the car first.

Recent work

2010-12-10T18:30:00.004+02:00

Opposition party's secretary general talks to the press. One of the outtakes...

Young Turkish engineers who developed a software which would prevent data leakages similar to the recent Wikileaks incident, pose for a group portrait in their office.

Opposition party's secretary general talks to the press. The select...

A recent tender... The man with the big smile is the general manager of a private company which bought a public electricity distribution company for 1 billion 165 million US Dollars, about what I make weekly as a photojournalist, not!

Somethin'... Personal I guess.

A few daily selects

2010-11-30T22:58:00.003+02:00

First, I covered a trade event organized by the Austrian Embassy.

Then I was sent to a site with a suspicious package across from a political party building. The bomb expert blew it up. Luckily, it was nothing.

Four days in Istanbul in less than a minute

2010-11-29T01:39:00.002+02:00

Here's a 58 second audio slideshow. I put together some of my photographs and a blend of three ambient audio tracks I recorded during my first shoot for my new employer. I'd call it a "freestyle" piece; so don't bother to look for a storyline.

I'm still based in Ankara but my first assignment happened to be in Istanbul. It was great especially because I had a chance to meet the Istanbul crew of the news agency; awesome people!

Among the photographs, there's a 5-frame, no-tripod, panoramic image of a packed press conference and a multiple exposure image during a sightseeing tour.

Turn your speakers on and click play!

Around the Alpha

2010-11-25T00:46:00.002+02:00

From our window

2010-10-21T23:40:00.002+03:00

The blue minibus is called dolmus, which means "filled" in Turkish. Traditionally, it doesn't leave the station until it's completely filled with passengers.

Truck drivers from Kirsehir

2010-09-29T02:39:00.003+03:00

Truck drivers Celal and Orhan, lit by a small fire on the shore, stand for a portrait near Mogan lake.

Rengarenk Sertab Erener concert at Panora

2010-09-24T03:31:00.003+03:00

Turkish pop singer Sertab Erener gave a concert yesterday at Panora shopping mall in Ankara. Erener is a cross-over soprano with a vocal range that extends to high F. She is best known for winning the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 with her hit song "Everyway That I Can."

Recreational fishing, social drinking and political analysis

2010-09-23T04:12:00.005+03:00

I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do on my 30th birthday. We had no plans. I came up with a last minute idea to take some pictures; brilliant thinking for a photographer, eh? Well, it was going to be different. I packed my tripod! I planned to take a panoramic picture of Mogan lake near Ankara. After I drove on dirt roads which weren't on the GPS, I picked a spot to park my car. While exploring the area on foot, I saw these four men. I decided to say hi and ended up talking about soccer and politics for a couple of hours with four strangers. Oh yes, I took their pictures, too.

*What about the panoramic shot? No, it wasn't taken.

Saturday

2010-09-19T16:37:00.001+03:00

Opposition rally in Ankara

2010-09-05T23:41:00.002+03:00

On Sunday, September 5, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP), spoke to his supporters in Ankara during a rally against the constitutional amendment bill, which will be voted in a national referendum next week. The bill, prepared by the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP), includes major alterations to the judicial system, which has recently defied political authority on several issues.

Please click play for more -- fazlası için lütfen oynat butonuna tıklayın.

Yeehaw!

2010-08-31T19:35:00.004+03:00

Sunflower field in western Turkey

2010-08-11T11:51:00.004+03:00

I'm back from the US; still trying get over the fatigue. In the meantime, I'm editing the wedding photo-shoot I did right before my flight to Kansas City. Here's a teaser.

Thick-framed

2010-07-09T03:47:00.003+03:00

Field of dreams

2010-06-27T15:24:00.004+03:00

I shot this beautiful couple for their engagement ceremony. Long story short, June 30 is my last day at the Embassy. I've decided to leave the comfort of a steady job and set sail in the freelancer-unfriendly seas of Turkey. Without a press card, which you can only get if you are a staff photographer (and it takes months to get it after you are employed), I am not very likely to get enough news agency assignments to pay the bills. If I were not a Turkish citizen, it could have been a different story, but the current regulations and laws here do not grant local freelancers the chance to survive. No, nobody is hiring a staff photographer either. I know, but I would hate myself if I didn't make this move. My plan is to shoot anything moving or still to make money and have my own schedule that would allow me to pursue documentary work.

World Refugee Day Umbrella March in Ankara

2010-06-22T23:33:00.002+03:00

I went downtown on the weekend for Reuters to see if this rally was anything interesting; not really, but been there and shot that. It was nice to be out and shoot a few photographs, which I could share on my blog.

B.

2010-06-19T00:34:00.004+03:00

Another portrait

2010-06-17T00:07:00.001+03:00

Portrait

2010-06-15T22:37:00.001+03:00

in vino veritas*

2010-06-11T00:20:00.004+03:00

*Latin . "in wine there is truth."

Turkish little league hockey

2010-06-09T23:04:00.003+03:00

ABBA Sports Club (in white-and-orange jerseys), which came second in the regular season, defeated the little league champions AU Panthers at the end of the penalty shootout in the post-season Turkish cup qualifying game on Wednesday, June 9.

It wasn't the ideal shooting situation; a lot of mist over the rink! Nevertheless, I'm glad I moved my butt to actually shoot something after a work day in the office.

Some point&shoot snapshots from ANZAC 2010

2010-05-01T12:27:00.002+03:00

On Saturday, April 24, 2010, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key leaves Cape Helles after the Commonwealth service in Gallipoli, Turkey.

"The Turkish Stars" perform during the Turkish service.

On Monday, April 26, the Maori Cultural Group gets ready for a haka performance at Istanbul High School.

Turkey's football league

2010-03-28T15:38:00.007+03:00

A few shots from a Turkish football game... At the end of the first half, the score was 12 - 20. METU came from behind and defeated the home team Hacettepe 46-20.

It was a nice Saturday and I went to shoot the sport I love the most. I haven't shot football since my first semester at Missouri when I was kindly granted a field pass by the Athletic department. I played football for 6 years in Turkey.

Football has been played in Turkey since 1993. For 8 years, Turkish teams did not have any equipment. It was still played as a contact sport, just like rugby but rougher. I played one and a half years like that.

In 2001, teams started acquiring helmets and pads. Most of the equipment was donated by high schools in the US and brought to Turkey by Tom Kelly, the gridiron diplomat as he called himself. Most of the equipment wouldn't pass US safety inspections. A good deal of them were too small for adult players. Turkish players were happy regardless.

I remember how ecstatic my teammates and I were when Tom arrived with two huge bags of used equipment. We spent the whole night in the gym to screw the face masks on, attach the straps etc.

Today there are three official leagues (two club and one university league), over 15 teams, funding available through an official federation and sponsors, even columnists writing commentary on a Turkish football portal. The quality of Turkish football is comparable to semi-pro level in the US. I'm hopeful that it'll get better. There are Turkish players already in better European leagues like those in Germany. I hope one day we'll be able watch Turkish players in the NFL.

New Zealand's Foreign Minister McCully visits Turkey

2010-03-10T00:40:00.004+02:00

These shots are from New Zealand's Foreign Minister Murray McCully's visit to Turkey. The first three were selected by Reuters. I heard that the "climbing" shot (#2) was actually printed by a New Zealand paper. I wanted to share three outtakes in addition; I hope that's not too much for your blogging taste.

New Zealand's Foreign Minister Murray McCully visits Lone Pine in Gallipoli March 5, 2010. Lone Pine is the Australian memorial located where the first battle of the Gallipoli campaign was fought. Some 4,000 Australian and New Zealand soldiers struggled to get ashore on this narrow beach 95 years ago in the ill-fated campaign that claimed more than 130,000 lives at the edge of this remote peninsula in western Turkey.

New Zealand's Foreign Minister Murray McCully climbs up a trench from World War I as he visits the ANZAC cemeteries in Gallipoli March 5, 2010.

New Zealand's Foreign Minister Murray McCully (R) visits the ANZAC cemeteries as he is accompanied by New Zealand's Ambassador to Ankara Andrea Smith (L) in Gallipoli March 5, 2010.

Hired gun

2010-01-17T23:18:00.007+02:00

Long time no post... As some of you might already know, I have a non-photo but journalism-related full-time job. It pays the bills, and I do like it, but I really miss photojournalism. Still nobody around here is hiring a staff photographer. During my job search this past summer, I was fortunate to meet the few established photojournalists and editors here in Turkey. Small, very small market... Anyways, I got a phone call this week, which totally made my day. I was asked by Reuters to cover a rally. I got free mentoring on the side. :) I hope to cover more and learn more as a stringer and promise to improve. The first four pictures are the ones Reuters purchased (© Reuters), and I wanted to post two outtakes I liked.

Some film photography

2009-12-04T02:09:00.003+02:00

Moving

2009-11-26T04:13:00.003+02:00

Day and night

2009-11-14T16:42:00.000+02:00

15 hours on the light boat

2009-11-04T01:49:00.006+02:00

Here are some "irrelevant images" from the folders of my ongoing fishermen project.

A gull, lit by the halogen bulbs of the light boat, is taking off from the edge of the fish net.

Self-portrait in the cabin of Niyazi Kaptan, the "light boat" of the seiner Berat Reis, on a chilly and rainy night in the Aegean Sea.

The light boat sailing towards the rainbow.

The light boat = too much noise from the generator + too much light from the halogen bulbs + too much movement because of the small size of the boat + loneliness for the one man crew lambaci [the light man]

Storm sunset

2009-11-01T20:50:00.003+02:00

The Aegean coast of Turkey. 9 vertical frames merged for the panorama.

Wide-medium-tight

2009-10-27T20:17:00.002+02:00

Work in progress

2009-10-09T10:00:00.000+03:00

Marina in the morning

2009-10-05T22:23:00.004+03:00