Istanbul photos

Abby striking a model pose; an interior shot of the Blue Mosque; the exterior of the Hagia Sophia.
Leather Islamic medallions and balcony inside the Hagia Sophia; a mosaic inside the Hagia Sophia; the Baghdad Pavilion of Topkapi Palace.
Galata Tower; a garbage scow on the Bosphorus; Yoros Castle at Anadolu Kavagi on the Black Sea.
Abby at Yoros Castle; the Ortoköy Mosque at sunset; boy carrying eggs through the market at night.
A fruit seller; spices at the Spice Bazaar; a fast food joint.

Istanbul

Abby and I just came back from a five-day stay in Istanbul, where we celebrated Abby's 40th birthday. Our hotel was located just behind the Blue Mosque; in fact, I chose the hotel based on the view, and it was lovely to eat breakfast on the terrace, gazing at the mosque in one direction and the Bosphorus in the other. Unfortunately, what I hadn't considered when I booked the hotel was that if we could see the mosque, we would also hear the 5.37 AM call to prayer every morning blaring from the more than 30 speakers hung on the minarets.

Istanbul is fantastic - the mosques, the Hagia Sophia, the palaces, the winding streets, the shopping ... We bought a few carpets, and the carpet shopping experience was generally relaxing - you sit, a boy brings you a glass of hot apple tea, you exchange pleasantries, and then somehow the conversation turns toward carpets, and "would you like to see something really special?" As it happens, the two vendors from whom we bought carpets both had U.S. Embassy connections, so we actually did have things to talk about before we got into the pitch.

Sometimes the special carpet isn't particularly special, but other times the seller keeps unrolling beautiful piece after beautiful piece, and you're stumped as to which one you're going to take. We ended up with two hereke carpets and another of a less posh type. (Our herekes were made of wool and did not have gold and silver threads.) Still, you have to watch for scams, since you don't really know what you're getting. As we were looking for dinner one night, a Turkish couple came up to us and asked us where we were from; the man, Recep, was a carpet wholesaler who'd spent a lot of time in the D.C. area, and "because you are Americans," he said, he offered to educate us on carpets so we'd know what to look for. He wasn't going to sell to us, he said, since he was a wholesaler only; he just wanted to help us out.

Shrugging "what the hell," we went up to his showroom (we happened to be standing right in front of it) where we were greeted by Pasha, an enormous, stinky but sweet Rottweiler who was happy to press against our legs while we sat so we'd scratch behind his ears. We were pretty shopped out and more interested in the dog at that point, but we listened to Recep explain how to tell synthetics from real fabrics, how to tell machine-made carpets from hand-made, and how to look for signs of chemical dyes instead of natural dyes. It was actually pretty helpful, but then we realized that Recep had slipped from showing us examples of carpet types and patterns to asking "do you like this one?" and "what do you think of that one?" We half-interestedly looked at a few more and started to take our leave - at which point Recep yelled "Pasha, sell!" and the dog suddenly turned mean and began snarling and barking and forcing us back into our seats.

No, actually, we just said thanks, shook hands, and left for a dinner of kebabs.

Anyway, I'll post some photos next.

2009 U.S. Embassy Chili Cook-off Champion

Oh yeah.

The Tirana Marathon and other things

Yesterday was the running of the Tirana Marathon. I decided the day before to run the vrapimi masiv - the 2K massive run at the start of the event, before the marathoners went on to do the other 40K. This was an only arguably stupid decision, since while I hadn't run in about three months, a mile and some wasn't going to kill me, even if my shoes had no support left in them.

Some of the intrepid contestants

The poster for the marathon advertised the date of the run, but neither the time nor the place, so we had to make some inquiries there. The route was also changed last minute: the massive run shrank from 4.2K to 2 K because the organizers didn't get permission to close the boulevard for its full length. The rest of the course was through the park, a six-lap circuit (or seven, or five - few of the runners actually knew), but it wasn't clear who was responsible for keeping count ... we were joking that Rosie Ruiz would have felt right at home.

I'm working on my portfolio for a course I'll be taking in January. This entails a lot of printing and reprinting digital files, which can get tedious, but it's good to actually have a collection of photos in hand, to put some of them in some order, and to finally decide which ones are actually good versus good enough. I'll also make some prints in the darkroom. There hasn't been much USAID or GTZ work, but that's good insofar as the majority of projects they have for me involves conferences or press events in hotels rather than actual field visits to working projects, and I've done enough conferences to know that while it's work I can do well, it's not work I particularly enjoy. (As I'm going to be reminded this Wednesday at the Sheraton.)

We were in London and Sussex recently, visiting a friend from college. We spent lots of time on her farm, taking care of horses, seeing the countryside (including Charleston, the Bloomsbury house), and enjoying the pubs. We also saw the start of a foxhunt, which seems to be as much about drinking on horseback as it is chasing foxes. The only good thing about it is that, more often than not, the fox wins, but otherwise it seems about as sporting as sending a bunch of half-blind rugby players out to chase down a six-year-old. More on that later. Still, it's nice to be in England.

Because traffic cones are for wimps

After seeing this, the problems in our neighborhood don't seem quite so bad.

A post for August 31

Unbidden, I take pixel to hand and sit at the computer. At the moment, I'm running a 101° fever and have discovered a potential hiatal hernia, so I'm not at my best.

It's been a difficult month, relatively speaking. Abby is between two visits from HQ, so she has had to put in a lot of hours. There has been no work for me since everyone (the development organizations included) takes the summer off, and it seems that Mapo has either folded or is on the verge of doing so. I have an application in for a paid position with UNDP as a photographer, but since I don't meet the five years' professional experience requirement, I can only hope that the quality of my work outshines that of the other applicants; and while I'm good, I'm not quite that good yet. And the tearing up of our sidewalks and curbs goes into its third month with little discernable progress; I'm betting on December for something which would have been done in a week back home.

Next week we go on vacation to Vienna and Prague with Abby's parents, so there will be more to write and hopefully some good photographs.

A posting for July 27

Those of you who have been keeping up with this blog - if I can use the phrase "those of you" to refer to the second person singular - anyway, someone has asked me to write a new entry since the last one is over a month old. And the truth is that I've been adding entries at a barely glacial pace. The reason is not that I'm up to here with Albania, although I am sick of the fact that my street and all the streets leading to it have been torn up since the beginning of June, when the city was desperately digging them up for repairs in advance of the June 28 election, immediately after which all work ceased;* nor is the reason that I'm too busy with the dog, whom I've lately tried to train to get the ball, for which I might just as well be saying "go wash the car," since he just lies down when I start talking to him; the reason isn't even that I'm too busy with photography, given that the country takes the entire two months of July and August off, so there isn't any work for me to do (and Mapo is about to fold anyhow).

No, the reason I'm not updating the blog is because I'm lazy. Plain and simple. However, it's two days before my 3rd wedding anniversary,** I'm drinking some champagne and feeling carefree, so here we go.

June's excitement, as suggested above, was the election, in which two coalitions - the "Alliance of Change" led by the ruling Democratic Party (nepotism, corruption) and the "Union for Change" led by the Socialists (nepotism- and corruption-in-waiting) - faced off against each other and against two smaller coalitions of parties, totalling 33 parties in all plus independent candidates. You'd think that 33 parties gives the electorate a wide choice, but in some cases it's hard to know what the differences are between the various parties. For example, the Social Democrats and the Democratic Socialists were in alliance with the Socialists against the Democrats; the Christian Democrats and the Demo-Christians sided with the Democrats but against the Democratic Alliance; and the Socialist Movement for Integration - which should be allied with the Socialists but isn't because it is led by a former Socialist Prime Minister who doesn't like the current Socialist Party leader - had its own alliance. The full list of parties included:

The Democratic Alliance The Liberal Democratic Union The Albanian Demochristian League The Albanian Demochristian Party The Agrarian Environmentalist Party of Albania The Alliance of Macedonians for European Integration The Alliance for Democracy and Solidarity The National Front Party The Democratic National Front Party The New European Democracy Party The Democratic Party The New Party of Denied Rights The Albanian Force Party The Party of Movement and Legality (a.k.a., the monarchists) The Hour of Albania Party The Party for Justice and Integration

The Albanian Republican Party The Movement for National Development The Albanian Party of Democratic Reform The Albanian Conservative Party The Road of Freedom Party The Movement for the Rights and Freedom of People The Socialist Movement for Integration The Green Party The Party for the Defense of the Rights of Emigrants The True Socialist Party '91 The New Tolerance Party of Albania The Union for Human Rights Party The Social Democracy Party Group 99 The Social Democrat Party The Socialist Party of Albania The Law and Justice Party

In the end, the country held a relatively honest election (albeit with some complaints of voter intimidation, procedural lapses and other problems, to the point that the results have not yet been certified), and the Democrats and their allies took 70 seats, the Socialists and their allies took 66 seats, and the Socialist Movement for Integration took 4 seats.† Just when the election appeared to be deadlocked, Socialist Movement for Integration leader Ilir Meta did the "right thing for the country" (in his own words) and joined the Democratic Party in government, thereby screwing over his rival in the Socialists. Fortunately, since there isn't a hair's difference between any of the major parties' platforms, it's not like anyone principles were sacrificed. I photographed the election for USAID; the photos and my commentary are here.

My brother Sam and his wife Lynn came to visit us earlier this month, thus becoming the first people to visit who didn't have to. Abby and I then followed them to Budapest, which is for my money a truly remarkable city. Stunning architecture, a picturesque stretch of the Danube‡, great pastries, and a language that is wholly mystifying even next to Albanian. We loved it, and I'm working on some photos for the website.

Now I'm trying to retrain the dog to come when called, to walk cooperatively on a leash, and to wash the car, all the while waiting for summer to end so I can get back to work.


*For example, when the workmen first dug the ditch in front of my driveway, they promised me they'd be done by 6.00 PM; and when I came home at 6.05 PM I realized that, indeed, they'd already dropped their tools and gone home. They didn't fill in the ditch until the three days later.

**I realized earlier this month that, even though our assignment doesn't end until July 2010, my embassy badge had expired in February 2009. I can only assume the front office was taking bets.

†For some reason, Albania's parliament has 140 seats, not 139 or 141. Also, only six parties actually scored enough votes to win seats, three of which winning one seat each.

‡Granted, we're talking in comparison to Bratislava.

New photo website

I've decided to go a more professional-looking route with my photos: www.paulcohnimages.com.

A posting for June 12

I've been reminded that I haven't posted anything lately. I suppose that because I'm so close to my own life - as most people are - I don't think to tell people about it, especially since I'm not a committed blogger. Plus we've settled into Albania so well that it doesn't seem new any longer, except for the daily outrages of watching someone drive into oncoming traffic so he can cut you off and run a red light, which never gets old. Still, it's not like I'm doing nothing all day.

Lately, I've been volunteering for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for a while now, shooting public events. So far I've done the kick-off of the audit season for public officials, a munitions disassembly site, an olive oil festival (as shown to the right), the signing of the first private loan made to a municipality, and the opening of a new licensing center; tomorrow, I'm shooting a community day in Fier, about two hours away; and at the end of the month, I'm shooting the national elections, which should be a very busy day.* I've also started doing work for GTZ, the German equivalent of USAID, but I've only had one project with them so far. And when I'm not doing all of this, I'm taking a distance-learning photography course and working on my own projects - for example, scanning and editing negatives featuring abandoned factories around Albania, which is a recurring fascination of mine. Last month, Abby and I went to Krakow, and I'll get around to editing those photos eventually as well, hopefully before we go to Budapest next month with my brother Sam and his wife Lynn, who are coming to visit, where I expect to take even more photographs, thus ensuring that I'm buried in pixels for the foreseeable future.

Finally, Abby is well, Cooper remains adorable and is becoming slightly less prone to disobey us when we tell him to stop eating poo in the park, but only slightly.

*Electioneering here seems to consist of making impossible, lofty promises to cheering throngs, waving the American flag (strength by association, the 2004 election not withstanding) and heckling the opposition parties. Really edifying stuff.

Road closures

Today, the Greek Prime Minister was in town. While I was visiting the embassy, the city closed the main boulevard, which lies between the embassy and our house and which also transects the major east-west routes through the city. This brought traffic to a crawl; I left the embassy at 1.00 pm and arrived home, 2 miles away, at 2.00 pm. At 5.15 pm, I figured that the official activities were largely over, so I drove back toward the embassy; by 6.00 pm, I had to turn around after having gone about 1 mile. This was not a good day.

Yesterday, on the other hand, the city also closed the boulevard for the first breast cancer awareness march held in Tirana. It being a Sunday, the closure was not a big deal; the march, on the other hand, was, as Albanians generally don't discuss these types of things (cancer, breasts) in public. Slowly, the country is entering the latter half of the 20th century.*

Dignitaries, including Speaker of the House Josefina Topalli, U.S. Ambassador and Mrs. John L. Withers II, and Tirana Mayor Edi Rama, leading the march; marchers stretching down the boulevard; Cooper and his pink ribbon.

*Yes, I know it's the first half of the 21st century.

Nikaia

On Friday, I went on a photo shoot to Nikaia, a former Greek settlement from 400 BC. The day was warm and sunny, the grass was full of wild flowers, and there on top of this mountain were the ruins of homes and amphitheaters. Stunning.

Also, I have no idea who this kid is - she lives in the nearby village - but I think this is a great photo:

Guess where dinner comes from?

Today we went to the butcher. There's actually something artistic about killing and eviscerating a sheep, and it makes for a good photo story.

Earthquake

There was a minor tremor in Tirana last night. To me, it felt as though a heavy truck had driven past the house, sending vibrations up through the floor.

Insurance Fraud

On Monday night, we went to the Opera House for a cocktail reception and operatic concert hosted by Sigal, Albania's largest insurance company, in honor of its 10-year anniversary. The guest list included diplomats and business leaders; in fact, we got the Ambassador's tickets, and so were seated in the "executive loggia", which I have to assume was where Enver Hoxha and his ministers sat during Communist times. This was not a little strange.

For the first half hour after we were seated, we were treated to speeches and videos celebrating Sigal's history and accomplishments. Certainly, they had the right to feel proud, but after about 15 minutes it began to feel overdone; fortunately, the presenter put away the microphone, the orchestra began to play, and then the singer took the stage. The program included Mozart, Puccini, and other works not listed in the program, but that was alright - the performance was very good - but half an hour into the music, the concert halted for another half hour of speeches and videos celebrating Sigal's history and accomplishments. We then had 15 more minutes of music and it was over. (There might have been encores, but we were fed up at that point.) For those of you keeping score, that's 1 hour of speeches, 45 minutes of music. As Abby put it, "Why blow all the goodwill that you created in offering the concert by wasting everyone's night with speeches?"

Latest work

Click here.

The camera's fixed; dust on the sensor.

And then ...

... a black spot starts appearing in my digital photos, meaning there's something wrong with the sensor.

Back from Florida

The title being as it is because I was in Florida during the last week of January for a photography course at the Palm Beach Photographic Centre. I attended about 20 seminars, workshops and photo shoots led by leading photographers and photo editors, learning everything from the (very) basics of the photojournalism business to lighting techniques to Photoshop. It was fascinating and exhausting, and I learned how much I have to learn. Just the nuts and bolts of digital printing left my mind boggled.

The photos below are some of the pictures I took during the first photo shoot on Tuesday, in Miami's Little Havana. We strolled Calle Ocho looking at stores, the domino players' park, and the cigar factories. We had great opportunities for portrait-taking, but I was also fascinated by the untouristed end of the street that showed a more isolated community than the one we'd gone to see.




One of the things that most impressed me is how photography is now about technology - Photoshop, the right printer, the right scanner. One of the photographer/instructors who most made an impression on me was Ben Willmore, whose work you can see at http://www.thebestofben.com/. This isn't the type of work I'd necessarily do - I'm still a fan of black & white film - but after his demonstration I could see how this fits into the photography lexicon (and I broke down and bought Photoshop). For example, by manipulating color, shadow, detail and contrast, you can direct the eye toward what you want people to see - in this case, toward the hand and the standing dominos, and away from the watch or the dominos in the corner. (At least, that's what I hope I'm doing.)

Darkroom

I've set up a darkroom in the house, and have begun developing and printing my film. Meanwhile, on the digital front, the latest Mapo shoot involved two villages just outside of Tirana where there were mining operations in the '80s; the mines are now closed and most of the residents are unemployed and poor.

The former miners' canteen (two photos); former miners' residences and work buildings, now occupied by villagers; local children.