B&B 2 Edge Effects for photosynthesis by brewgirlca
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Description
Second in my Boundaries and Borderlands series where I explore explore physical, stylistic and cultural boundaries and borders. Please see Boundaries and Borderlands 1 for details.
First I want to thank everyone who took the time to comment and especially those who got into the spirit of it and found their own boundaries and borders. Your input helps me tremendously because as the artist/creator I am probably too close to be objective or see all there is to see. One of my instructors said that no matter what we intend to show, viewers will see it differently.
This is for Claude (photosynthesis) because in a private site mail he asked about what was a Lomo effect. By coincidence this photo uses a photoshop add in of one Lomo effect - a sharp center and blurred towards the margins, like using a cheap vintage camera.
I encourage you to critique my concepts of boundaries and borders; you will help my book project a lot by doing so. Claude also suggested making a bit of a game of it by having you, the viewers, try to find additional boundaries or borders that I have overlooked or omitted. Please go for it; excellent suggestion!
Edge Effects
This is the Sumela Monastery in northeastern Turkey in the Trabzon Province and south of the city with that name. It was established in 386 AD. The most obvious visual boundary, to me, is the fact that the monastery is perilously perched on the edge of a cliff face. What it took to build such a site in such a remote valley was nothing less than monumental and is a testament to the power of faith. There are several other boundaries that seem evident: there is the human structures vs nature, trees vs rocks, and the contrast of vivid warm oranges and reds and cold blue and green colors. I like how the trees and building follow the same line.
What is not evident is that this monastery sits on several cultural borders. It is a far eastern outlier of a Greek Orthodox Church. It is about as far east as the Church got in the era of Constantinople. When the area was finally completely overrun by the Ottomans, in 1461, the monastery was preserved and given grants by Sultan Mehmed II. It is ironic that the greatest damage to the site was not by the Ottomans but probably caused by Russian Christian soldiers who machine gunned the site when they occupied it during the First World War. Although they claimed it was already damaged when they got there. The site was completely abandoned in 1923 during the exchange of Turkish and Greek populations.
So not only was this a border between Ottomans and Christians, it was a boundary between Ottomans and Russians and Turks and Greeks. A place built for peaceful contemplation of the Virgin Mary turned into a symbol of savage conflict.
Comments (16)
renecyberdoc
like "glued"into the wall.thanks for the history bits as well.
eekdog Online Now!
cool info and what a splendis photo, Roxy. love it in color. hope you have a b&w version also.. bet the view from them balconey's are awesome.
MineFujiko
Beautiful and spartan view,Roxy-san!
giulband
Great photographic sense of image and a great concept in this series !!!!!
Faemike55
and the cracks in the walls of rock delineate additional future boundaries; and the only entity that cannot be stopped in the quest of expanding those baoundaries is simple water
rhol_figament
You timed it perfectly for the light, feels like an ancient place... :)
magnus073
Roxy, you did a splendid job on this thought provoking dedication to your friend. I like how you were able to post an image that helped to better illustrate the effect he has asked you about. You're points were well made about the number of boundaries and borders featured in this setting. I find myself in total agreement with you on how sad it is that a place built to symbolize peace turned into a symbol of conflict.
CarolusB
impressive :-)
photosynthesis
What a fantastic structure & location. I honestly can't even conceive of the engineering skill & sheer physical work involved in building something like this out of stone materials in the 4th century. Your photo of it is wonderful also, with a couple of boundaries that jump right out at me. The first is the distinctive vertical line that separates the bright, sunlit cliff from the more shaded, tree covered slopes in the background. The same line also marks a boundary between an area of sharp detail & bright color & another area of fuzzy, faded background. And then that same background area on the right is broken up into a series of diagonal slices. My brain tells me these are hills receding into the distance, but my eye also reads them as diagonal stripes piled one on top of the other. Lots going on here compositionally. And, of course, thanks for the info about Lomo...
brewgirlca
Yes, there are two stong boundary lines seen here. The tops of the midground trees descending from the left and then it meets the base of the cliff which forms another strong line. With the two of them there is a triange, a strong compositional element. Thank you for making that so clear.
drifterlee
Very beautiful shot. Well, I live near the Canadian border outside of Detroit.
adorety
The border of architecture on such a cliff face really screams at you. The underlying concepts of location will only be known by understanding the history of the area, which make this picture a great starting point to explore the history of the monastery and the region. Photosynthesis mentions the boundary of the cliff and the sky and that is another prominent boundary. Another more ambiguous boundary is between Earth and Heaven. Considering this place a religious refuge, I imagine part of the inspiration to building on a high cliff was to be closer to the sky or Heaven. So there lies a less obvious border since the gulf is quite wide.
brewgirlca
I can see your point about building on the edge of a hgh cliff face to feel closer to God and heaven. That is an interesting idea. This must have been an especially amazing site when it was active, when pilgrims had to travel tens to hundreds of miles across a vast forested wilderness to get to the place. It would have been especially stunning to see such a beacon of civilzation after such a long and perilous journey. One probably smelled it before seeing it as it had a huge kitchen and bakery and all of it would have been heated by wood fires.
RodS Online Now!
What a fantastic place - and a beauty of a photo, Roxy! Can you imagine waking up in the morning, and walking out to the veranda to a view from here? That must have been truly inspiring, indeed. This is going to be an amazing series with this theme!
brewgirlca
You can now rent rooms in the structure that fronts the cliff face. They used to be the rooms for the monks. I must be amazing to stay there if a bit spartan still.
maiden_of_darkness
Thank You for sharing. It's a gorgeous shot...I am enjoying your photography and the mini history lessons :)
mickuk50
The blue on the right is quite distracting and tends to draw the eye away, a bit like bright highlights would in a photo. It gives two distinctive feelings with the warm and cold colour's. Mick
KatesFriend
Judging by your narrative this place may also symbolize the temporal division between the modern age and the age of the ancient empires. In the handful of years after the First World War, most empires of the old world were officially abandoned at the same time as this monastery. The photo is jaw dropping and awe inspiring in just its vibrant colours alone. And astonishing as to how this place could have been conceived and made real so many centuries ago. Marvelous, thank you so much for sharing this wonder with us.
brewgirlca
I like that idea. It is very hard to capture temporal boundaries but that is a great one. Indeed it was the end of the age of Empires- something that had sustained and defined humanity since the time of Sargon, the worlds first Emperor. It was the time of the great clearing where Greeks were moved from Turkey and Turks from Greece, destoying family and village ties that had grown for centuries regardless of ethnic backgrounds. I have learned through my years of travel that ethnicity usually matter very little to everyday folk and only becomes important when rulers become involved.
waldodessa
What a beautiful place!