Photos from Damascus

Man, some people on this forum are doing amazing photography! Ive bookmarked your site and hope to see more pictures.
 
Those are great photos. Did you use the same camera as in your self portrait? What was that? What is that car with the four headlights?

What film and development did you use? I really like the tonality. It is superb!
 
Thank you for your kind replies. Many of the photos are shot with a Contax G2 or a Bessa R3M. The film is all TMY2 @250 developed in Perceptol 1:2 for 12mins at 75 degrees. I don't know what kind of car that is, but the owner told me it used to belong to Winston Churchill. I suspect he was pulling my leg. The protest photos are from downtown Damascus after the US crossed the border in a raid from Iraq. I pretended I was a German photojournalist and wandered around the crowd. I really should have some captions, but I haven't really figured it out yet.
 
Wonderful!

Wonderful!

Thanks for sharing these. Some of the images offer a different perspective than we are accustomed to seeing from Damascus. And it's obvious that you won some trust from your subjects!

david
 
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I love this one! [edit: in my very humble opinion I would burn in those "highlights" at the top of the frame, it reinforces the image by focusing on the relationship of the girl and her mom. A personal preference, I do not pretend to know the truth of life or anything else and do not mean to step on your toes!]

Very very nice things, and indeed different from the usual barrage of middle eastern photography we're used to.

As for the captions, I think the type of info you just mentioned would be enough. A little something to put in context. For example the bit about the car being Churchill's, is, imho, a very authentic & appropriate caption for that series considering the culture portrayed ;)
 
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There are some stunning portraits in there, and a number of other shots that I really liked. Thanks for sharing them. I really liked the old man with the white beard, with the other men in the background. I also liked the dodgy looking guy with the stereo. The detail of the machinery was well done, too, with the very short DOF.

Cheers,
Steve
 
Great work, Jay. You were able to connect with the people in your photographs in a way that's difficult to do without speaking the language---do you speak Arabic?
 
Thanks for looking. I speak only a few words of Arabic, but my experience in Syria was of a very friendly, welcoming culture. I had similar experiences elsewhere in the Middle East. I sometimes had hassles with guards of one kind or another, but the general feeling I got from people in the street was very open. That, and the general vibrance of the place, made for a great atmosphere for street photography.
 
Wonderful body of work, of the sort that made me fall in love with photography in the first place. Please, share more as you can and often.

Eli
 
Excellent photos, all. I especially liked these:
 

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