Night Train

Solitude in the carriage

Past, present and future are all trapped inside this frame, in his mind he is just an observer of his own life.

I see a timeless quality in this picture, one of the best pictures I have taken so far. Surely it gives me a new direction. 

Sinister plan

This picture focuses on a story, a sinister plan. There are three main players in it. The man, the woman and a barrel.

To make the story coherent I chose square format.

You may interpret 'sinister plan' in two different ways. Either the woman is up to something, or the man is about to drop the barrel on her head.

I am very happy with this picture. It is playful, it has a good well composed story.

Click to enlarge the picture.

Lion hunter

A scourging hot bright summer day somewhere in southwest Turkey. 

A retiree perhaps, with his daily shopping tied in a plastic bag. Helmet? He doesn't seem bothered in a hot day like this, or anytime for that matter.

A lovely, layback life in the Mediterranean.  

Click the picture to enlarge.

Ancestors

This mural is in Chalmers Street itself from the start of the Devonshire Street Tunnel down to Eddy Avenue which runs along the front of Central Railway station. The mural celebrates the 150th anniversary of the railways in NSW, 1855 to 2005.

I was getting ready to take a picture of the mural, looking at my view finder. I noticed someone was moving through. Without much thinking before he disappeared I pressed the shutter button.

My snap distance was set to 2m. The man was much closer. I knew he wouldn’t look sharp. But then that slight blur gave the whole composition authenticity and movement.

The man with his working class face created a drama against backdrop of ghosts, workers long dead, his ancestors looking at him.

Catching up

Here we see two boys catching up after a day filled with skating. This story is about conversations on remains of the day. 

Informal retrospective analysis is something we all do from office workers to truck drivers. After a long day of engagement, be it work or entertainment we would like to count the scores. How did our day go? 

Giant's head

Another surprise in the cityscape. 

It is an entry to a night club. A mural painted on doors.

A transgender giant's face is looking at you. A drop of late afternoon sun on the giant's cheek made her alive. 

Can you imagine how boring and meaningless these doors would become without the mural? 

White Harley

An opportunity of this sort comes once in a while. It is the instinct I listen, not that I constantly chase for opportunities. I don't believe true art will emerge when you worry about productivity.

In this instance I was on my way to work in a rather chilly morning. Everyday I get off from the train three stations before my work place and I briskly walk for half an hour, daily exercise to stay fit.

I was waiting at red lights and I saw this gentleman on the other side of the road waiting for a right turn. He had this unusual retro chic, out of this place elegance, riding a beautiful white Harley Davidson, wearing a white trench coat and white helmet.  That was enough to make me shiver. I reached my bag, took my camera, secured the wrist loop, just about then his light turned to green, I pointed and shot without time to focus.

At home I looked at the picture in my editing tool Lightroom. My subject appeared a bit far as I shot in 28 mm mode. So I cropped probably equivalent to 50 mm, this made him closer. However I wasn't happy with colours interfering with my subject's black and white presence, attracting too much attention away from him. Hence I decided to switch to black and white. I played with Silver Efex Pro classic black and white filters.

Like William Klein (my idol), I like bending rules. For me this picture should represent another time perhaps sixties, seventies in terms of its light, dynamism and composition. It had to reflect naivety of retro combined with digital imperfection. Therefore a sharper picture would probably ruin what I wanted to achieve. In that regard it is a perfect picture, because it matches what goes on in my psyche perfectly, capturing a lost time.

Monday Morning

One of my best loved pictures. 

This picture shows how we strive to create personal space despite modern life's perils to restrict that.

Life is moving furiously outside. Fast moving train reflects that. Others stay in the dark as observers. The woman with her ultra modern noise cancelling headphones and small tablet sits on an individual seat, completely focused on her battle ahead.

You've been brassed

Modern Egyptians

Good pictures speak themselves. Years back I watched a documentary about lives of ancient Egyptian slaves who built pyramids. In the film they showed archeological sites exposing slaves' dwellings, a mega city not far from monuments. They lived in a maze of streets inside houses without windows. I then wondered, 'are we any different from Egyptian slaves?' Sure we live in better conditions, we have improved health and longevity. But fundamentally the freedom we perceive is an illusion. Great majority of us practically cannot quit our jobs, and we work in jobs we don't necessarily like. We too work for bread. The differences are superficial. We are slaves just like ancient Egyptians.   

Rock bathers

I love the dynamism and natural composition in this picture. Young man having a shower in the foreground, matching curvatures of the rock he is standing on, the mist around him, and people on the rocky platform. It is an exciting and happy picture, yet it has some dreamy aura. 

Curiosity

Young boy takes a peek at the revenue of a street musician, a career prospect for him perhaps?

Break

The young woman is having a break from her day time job.

I wanted to capture modern human in yesterday's environment. In essence we are who we were yesterday. Human condition is timeless.

The otherworld

All lines are leading to a bright other-world. We either come out or go into the wormhole.

There is something unsettling yet attractive about this picture. I didn't notice the swim-lane illusion in the middle until recently. Usually I avoid symmetry. This time my instincts told me to go for it, and they were right.

The doves

A love story, a quiet chatter we cannot intercept. A broken heart perhaps, a hesitant lover, remorse, the stillness of a frozen storm.

I have chosen this picture because it has a great love story. Its simple geometry helped us to focus on the story itself.

Hello World

Pics Chosen is a blog about photography, my late found passion.

In this blog I will share just that, pics chosen, the one percent that managed to escape the delete button. I will explain why they were chosen, what thoughts they provoked, why I think they are important.

My photography evolves just like everything else in Life. I have no strict objectives, agenda or plan other than a simple desire to follow my instincts and reflect them through my Art, a random journey if you like.

Disclaimer: I do value my work. All of the photographs in this blog are Copyright © by Ergun Coruh. You cannot and you should not use them in commercial products or in any way without my written permission. You are allowed to share blog posts as is without modification.