November 17 2004. James was in my studio. It is his birthday today. Happy Birthday J.
Later on, PBS USA contacted me. They wanted to do a 15 minutes on TV at Art Express on me.
They came in town. And I had to do an actual shoot, with a male and a female (while they were posing nude).. However we could not show butts and boobs. Check the link to see what was shown on conservative public television after they have taped.
This morning I was digging out some old CD's.. I came across to some images which brought back fantastic memories. Pictures tend to do this.
In January 2008 Bernard and Marina were in my studio. Bernard had just returned from a contract in an Arab country for a TV station. He had asked me what I would like to have from the country. I said, burka... Afghani burkas are colorful. Saudi burkas are totally black.
The next thing, husband and wife were posing for me in my old downtown studio with my gift.
I have always imagined creating a photo about extremeness of women in both societies. Western versus Middle East. Being born as a Christian in a secular Muslim city like Istanbul I had never felt what's going on in the world now. I hear Turkey is changing as well.
I also had traveled for business as a woman to several Arab countries. I have seen and experienced all cultures. I learnt to respect other cultures yet I have always kept my own believes.
The first shot is called: The Portrait Of Newly Weds.
Go ahead and analyze it.
The second one is called "Her Alter Ego Behind Closed Doors" Both of the woman in the shot is Marina.
"Forty is the old age of youth; fifty the youth of old age."
Victor Hugo
To all the love birds out there, may you age happy together by always leaning on to each other's shoulder.
Last Thursday my husband and I, we celebrated 25 years together and 21 years of marriage.
"The very existence of flame-throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done."
George Carlin
"Fire is light-footed and shamanic, dancing between the visible and invisible, undoing matter one collapsed molecule at a time, wreaking utter destruction with a touch softer than breath. Its poor cousins, wind and water, are one-dimensional rubes by comparison. Wind is all push, push, push. Water is suffocating, but passively so. And even when water gets it together to be a torrent or a tsunami, it is but wet wind. Fire is at once elemental and otherworldly. Fire dances on the grave of all it destroys. Fire is serious voodoo.” Micheal Perry From my garden to yours with love. Photos were shot by me hand held in August 28th 2013 PS: Thank you Danielle & Simon for this second opportunity collaborating with this project. We achieved well my vision of "The Shaman and His Sorcerer's Fire Dance" concept together.
Results below are with Lumix GH2 camera. Further down you will see the results with Canon 5DMark III.
As for people who can't believe that my photography is real and is mine, well, all I can say, I have nothing to prove to unbelievers. Let them walk with their blinders and see only what they believe in and peruse with their rumors.
I am known to edit my work. Half of the art of photography is in the editing of your images, the other half is composing and using the light to your advantage. In the past, before digital era, I used to print my images in my darkroom. Today Photoshop made it easier to achieve my artistic vision faster and easier.
I sometimes document the realty, much like in my travel photography. My colors are bold, sometimes saturated. But my travel photography are images as composed in my camera, not cropped... I usually travel with a Panasonic Lumix GH2 camera and Lumix lenses. I also capture images with my cell phone Samsung Galaxy SII. People who can't believe that great images can be shot with a cell phone, I welcome them to the new cell phone era. I produced 16"x20" size prints from my Galaxy SII.
The rumor has it that The Galaxy S5 (which is not out yet) might have an image stabilizer.
In my fine art portrait works. I am known with my very realistic collages. However everything in my collages are shot by me. The backgrounds, locations and the people. Much like in this Blog post.
Let me show you how I shoot and edit my areal landscape shots from the plane's window behind a dirty glass. And how it ends up becoming what you see uploaded to my Blogs.
Claude is an extremely handsome and a very sweetheart kind of a man.
I had photographed him first last year August 29 1012.
He returned back to my studio for another photo session this year in July 25 2013...
In about a week time he will compete at WBFF 2013 under the Pro category in Las Vegas.
Best of luck to you dear Claude.
Then if everything works well, I am scheduled to conduct another session with Claude in early September with another outstanding pro female fitness model in my studio.
