Click here to see the above photograph. Candlelight in Montenegro by Philip Rigby
In November, Micki Aston CPAGB gave a presentation entitled ‘Istanbul and Jerusalem: Two ancient cities’. A widely-travelled photographer, Micki introduced her audience first to the religious tapestry of Jerusalem with its Crusader walls and – through her camera – to life in the Muslim, Armenian, Christian and Jewish quarters of the old city.
The Muslim quarter is the largest and most populated, with many religious sites, stunning medieval Islamic architecture and busy bazaars. Micki showed a range of photographs, demonstrating her skill at landscape and street photography, including the use of a ‘fisheye’ lens to provide unusual images of people and architecture. She then visited the Jewish Quarter with its ancient Roman Cardo street, the old Byzantine bazaar and Hasidic Jews at the West Wall. Continuing, Micki went on to the Christian quarter and the site of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection, before ending in the smaller Armenian quarter, which has been continuously occupied since the first century BC.
In the second part of her presentation, Micki took us to Istanbul, a large city divided by the Bosphorus that separates the Christian and Arab communities. Once capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, the city is characterised by religious and Byzantine architecture, such as the Hagia Sophia, existing in close proximity to once fine buildings that have long since become derelict: a mix that provided opportunities for many contrasting images. Micki concluded with her usual street photography, commenting that the different religious clerics in both cities appeared to live in friendly harmony, without religious or ethnic factionalism. This was a most interesting presentation by an articulate, accomplished photographer, given with a great deal of humour, which was much appreciated by her audience.
John Branton