Reality in photography

A couple years ago I went to photo exhibition in London by Sebastiago Salgado. His photographs were from various parts of developing world, full of misery and suffering.

Although this kind of photography is chilling and in no way pleasant, I very much enjoy such photographs; they bring the world closer, they make me feel the world to some extent.

I have visited quite a number of photography exhibitions with a simmilar theme, however, this particular one really stuck with me, I am not sure if it was because of a mood I was in at the moment but these photographs seemed to breath the desperate feelings of the people and places portrayed right at the viewer...


The exhibition was so sad and it seemed, as it seems in all of these exhibitions, that there is no happiness, not even a momentary smile in the lives of these people..

Then recently I went to a photography exhibition "The Distant Near" here in Ankara.

It consisted mainly of photographs from Subsaharan Africa, but, although full of reality, this exhibition was full of color and even happiness and beauty...

Not that there is much comparison between the people or places portrayed except for the fact that they all come from one region in the world, but I just enjoyed the fact that this last exhibition showed the reality of the ordinary people of these regions quite differently. Although it is neccessary to see both sides of their reality, it is nice to see them for once as people, not just as a mass of unimaginable suffering...

Different view of Istanbul

Not to offend anyone, but I just got this joke from a friend and thought others should be able to laugh at it as well..
I figured that more open minded guys would enjoy it too....



:))