Scissors and Sunrises: Waxing Philosophical at 6 a.m. (…ok, 7).

DSCN0632 So those are the scissors in question. Harun (husband) found them at his fishing spot. We decided that Omer probably worked as a garment worker in Istanbul until he managed to save up enough money to pay a smuggler’s fee to get him from Turkey to Greece (more specifically, Foça to Mytilene).

These things happen between sunset and sunrise, when you and I are normally asleep.

For months now those scissors have been sitting in a fruit basket (along with an air conditioning remote control and a couple bars of soap – the remote control is ours, but I think the soap came from Omer); they’ve come in handy to snip the ends off things. I guess we’re not doing that badly.

That is my example of “documentary photography”.

I would have liked to explain that to some students – 2, 3 – that showed up for a workshop last weekend. “Documenting Foça: Shooting the archaeological and cultural heritage of Foça”. For an exhibit to be featured during “Foça Film Days” – “a celebration of the archaeology and cultural heritage that has come down to us today in Foça, Turkey, and the world.”

You can picture it, I’m sure: Where the Temple of Athena once stood, the mournful Ottoman Cemetery that most residents let alone tourists have never visited… Suffice it to say, Omer’s scissors will not be included in the exhibit.

And now we have here some examples of “aesthetic photography”: Last night’s sunset and this morning’s sunrise – the “before” and “after” of the crossings of Omer’s brethren. For both the sunset and sunrise, the first image represents “what the camera saw” when I was supposedly not manipulating the image – “supposedly”, because (obviously!) I was the one who framed the image – and the second is the image that was more close to what I was actually seeing, but which I had to manipulate the camera into allowing me to reproduce.

So, there you have it. The manipulation of reality to realise a vision.

DSCN0640 Foça Sunset (camera vision)