Boundaries and Borderlands 1 - Mind the Gap by brewgirlca
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Description
Welcome to my current photographic project, Boundaries and Borderlands. I've been actively shooting this since my trip to Scotland in the spring but have gone back and used images from a few years ago.
This will be 20 images from a talk I am giving in early October to my camera club. The self imposed rules are that every image has to be near (within a few km) of a political, cultural or physical border or it has to be at a spiritual boundary. Both place and time are valid criteria. Life transformations are also included.
For each image I will tell you something about where it is, why I took the shoot, and how it fits the criteria of Boundaries and Borderlands. Some of the shots are pretty obvious, especially when I tell you where or when they were taken. Every image will start with B&B and a number with a title.
I very much welcome discussion of the image in context of the theme boundaries and borderlands. Please do not hesitate to say, "this does or does not work for me," or "I would do this," or "I don't get a boundary impression from this shot." I hope to turn this project into a book, maybe three, so I value your input. I include in this series Turkey, France and Scotland. I will try to post every few days to keep the series going.
Mind the Gap
This was taken in Istanbul on Divan Yola Street which is in the old quarters near Hague Sophia. Being that Istanbul is the only city in the world to be on two continents it is obviously the most classic place to start a series on Boundaries and Borderlands.
The title comes from the Gap shirt one of the young men is wearing. And anyone who has ridden the London tubes will recognize the phrase "'Mind the gap'' which a machine says everytime the door opens and you have to step off the train onto the platform; ¦another reference to a border.
I think this shot captures both the European and Asian flavor of Istanbul, for many reasons. First we have two Arabic Turkish men but the Gap guy is very proudly sporting a European shirt and his pants are daringly at the knee. Short pants are just not worn by Turkish men; so this guy is rather bold and flaunting his stuff. We see a small alleyway cafe with a mix of blonde Euro women and dark Asian men.
I like the strong leading lines of this image that draw you into the scene and the timeless black and white works well here, at least I think so, in part by removing the clutter of color and making you focus on the busy scene. This shot was done in an instant. I was quickly walking on Divan Yola Street, I walked across an alley, saw these two guys out of the corner of my eye, turned, raised the camera made the shot, and scurried on to catch up with the rest of my group. Just boom, shoot and run.
Comments (12)
MineFujiko
Great capture, Roxy-san! this picture lets me feel the breath of the person of the town.
adorety
Wow! Talk about a lucky capture. Sometimes some of the best images are the instant and unplanned. Quite a concept for this picture series. In spite of the restrictions there is a lot of flexibility and lots of room for creativity. As you mention about the "Gap" man, his choice to wear shorter pants puts him on the border of tolerance in his culture. Excellent shot too. I love the urban setting and looking down the hill. Great composition.
brewgirlca
Good point Arthur, I believe you are right, he was pushing his cultural boundaries and that is another border for this image that I need to talk about. Thank you for adding that insight.
eekdog
great looking b&w capture, looks like those two are checking you out..
magnus073
Roxy, I think this was such a great idea for a series and you put a lot of thought into everything involving this first capture.
Faemike55
I'm looking forward to see this series, starting with this image the symbolism within this image reflects a lot of the borders and boundaries
Faemike55
within this image, you can consider the buildings and roads/walkways as borders and boundaries - the walls of the buildings set up both with their walls and the road delineates the border and boundaries between the buildings, creating the gap therein
brewgirlca
That's great Mike. I had not considered the space between the two strong walls of the streets as a 'gap'. That is a fine literal interpretation of the scene structure. I like that.
rhol_figament
We don't have to look too far for boundaries and conflict, We don't have to run too far... :(
giulband
Very strong capture perfectly in accord with the theme !!!!!
drifterlee
Wonderful shot. I have a Mind the Gap t-shirt from London.
RodS
This is a really fascinating project, Roxy - and I'm definitely looking forward to taking this ride with you. I really don't see anything in this photo I don't like. The slightly tilted does give it that 'grab shot' journalistic feel. The leading lines are perfect, and though some might find the background busy, I personally love getting lost in all the details - all the windows, doors, signs and whatnot. It has such a feeling of being 'alive.' It appears the 'Gap' guy was amused by you taking this photo - or he's just very proud of his shirt! LOL Yeah, I don't think his attire is Sharia approved... Looking very much forward to this series!
3dpoetry
Amazing photography, well done
e-brink
Great atmosphere and details!
photosynthesis
I like this photo a lot - you say you took it very spontaneously & that feeling of life & motion comes through. The two guys almost seem like they're going to break through the picture plane (another boundary?) into my house. The boundaries thing could be turned into a mental quiz or parlor game - how many boundaries can you find in this photo? The most obvious one to me is that part of the street they're stepping up from onto the grid-patterned sidewalk & it's an unusual one. I usually think of urban streets as the spaces that run between city blocks & delineate them, but here it just dead ends & it makes it seem like an odd shallow, hollowed out rectangular space. They could be stepping up an insignificant couple of inches or they could be stepping from one world into another...