A while back, I had another roundtable discussion at the Film Photographers Association. This time the subject was Still Life Photography. It is a genre we all take for granted and include in it a great variety of photographs. I would like to explore the origins of still life in painting, how it
Plumb Bobs
Most readers will know or at least heard of plumb bobs as a kind of weight at the end of a string. That's exactly how much I knew about them until I met Dr. Doğan Başak in Istanbul this past October. The waiting area of his office looked like a museum and in the Plexiglas cases hung hundreds of
Why Not?
Photograph ordinary objects? Why not? Photographers constantly search for things to photograph, generally "beautiful, amazing, striking, ..." subjects, and do not hesitate to travel the distance to faraway, exotic destinations. While mostly snow-bound in Rhode Island yesterday, I noticed a
Fine Art Photography Revisited
A while back I wrote a post "Fine Art Photography" to convey my thoughts on this elusive subject. Since its publication in March 2007, it has become by far the most read post on this site and still gets 30-50 hits every day. It is probably due to not much being written or said about the subject, or
Always Colorful Markets
Various types of markets (called pazar in Turkish) are a way of life in Turkey. There are permanent markets, like the Kadikoy Pazari (market.) Others, like the Kuzguncuk Pazari, have a large weekly, and a smaller permanent market. The goods range from vegetables, edibles, meat, fish, cheese, spices;
An Imaginary Conversation
We often get too set in our ways and our conversation remains in the same context which can blind us to see the pitfalls we create for ourselves. In general, using other photographers' aesthetics, judgments, and sensibilities should make us think twice, thrice, ... Yet, in the rush of creating the