Turkish Yogurt War: Image Rights

Photo Courtesy The BBC
The BBC reported that an elderly Greek discovered that his image was being used to sell Turkish yogurt in Sweden, and considered not only a personal affront, but a breach of his right to keep his image and likeness from being commercially exploited without permission or contractual compensation.

Minas Karatzoglou claims that his likeness was used without his permission by Lindahl's Dairy of Jonkoping in southern Sweden, and has commenced legal action against the company for compensation for the amount of $9 million.

On a prima facie basis, this appears to be a simple matter of some photographer not having the requisite model release...however there's more to that than meets the eye, because Karatzoglou is an ardent Greek nationalist who harbors deep-seated rancor against Turkey for its occupation of Greece. His grandfather and great grandfather took part in the War of Independence, which began in 1821, which ended centuries of Ottoman rule, and led to the formation of the modern Hellenic state.

In fact, Karatzoglou wears a panoply of 19th Century flintlock pistols and a curved dagger, which he claims have killed Turks.

The Swedish company claims that it bought the photograph of the mustachioed Karatzoglou from a Spanish photo agency, and that it has all the appropriate rights it needs to use this picture commercially.

I wouldn't like to be in the photographer's (or the head of the yogurt manufacturer's) shoes if he had to travel to Greece. These flintlock pistols seem to be in good working order.

I've posted my thoughts and recommendations on model releases in a 2008 post titled POV: Model Releases.

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Global Post: Whirling Dervishes

Photo © Nichole Sobecki/GlobalPost-All Rights Reserved
Global Post features an article and photographs by Nichole Sobecki titled Death of Rumi Breeds A Lively Dance relating to the most celebrated mystical poet of the Islamic and Sufism, and how the Mevlevi religious order founded by the poet celebrates his life 800 years on, with performances by Sufi whirling dervishes.

The Dervishes are Sufi Muslims who have chosen an ascetic way of life, and were known their extreme poverty and austerity, very similar to the Hindu sadhus.

Sufi whirling is a non-passive form of meditation which is practiced by the Sufi Dervishes of the Mevlevi order. It is a dance performed within the Sema, or worship ceremony, through which the dervishes seek to reach the source of all perfection by listening to the music, focusing on God, and spinning around in repetitive circles.

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
When I started taking photography seriously a little over 10 years ago, I attended a Sema dances at the Galata Mevlevihanesi in the Beyoglu area of Istanbul. I recall being seated next to a professional photographer, who intimidated me with his air of utter confidence. He started photographing with a bunch of top level Nikons, and so did I with my shiny new Canon Elan II (I just checked and used models are sold for $70). The above photograph was one of my better results, which I am quite sure was a fluke. Whatever it was, I think Nichole Sobecki's photograph is much better.

As the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop will be held in Istanbul, I wager that documenting the dervishes at the Galata Mevlevihanesi will be one of the students' project.

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My Show Off: Whirling Dervishes

Photograph © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
Here's another of my weekly Show-Off features with an example of my personal photography on The Travel Photographer's blog. Click on the photograph to view it larger size. I used one of Lightroom 2.0 standard presets to accentuate the photograph's colors.

It was photographed in Istanbul while Mevlevi dervishes perform a sema ceremony with a traditional orchestra at Istanbul's Galata Mevlevihanesi in Beyoglu. The sema is derived from Jalaluddin Rumi's habit of occasionally whirling in ecstatic joy in the streets of Konya. The whirling dances are just one of the physical methods used to try to reach religious ecstasy in Sufism.

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Ramin Rahimian: Istanbul

Image Copyright © Ramin Rahimian-All Rights Reserved
Ramin Rahimian's slideshow on Istanbul starts with a quote from Alphonse de Lamartine: "If one has but one glance to give the world, one should gaze at Istanbul". How true.

However if you expect to see skyline of Istanbul, its beautiful mosques and other architectural wonders, you'll be disappointed. Ramin's work is of the documentary style, and it's beautifully edgy.

Ramin was born in Iran and grew up in northern California. He started taking photojournalism seriously at UC Berkeley and currently freelances out of Salt Lake City in Utah. He worked for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and freelances for thee New York Times, Reuters, ZUMA and has gleaned many awards.

His website has interesting other photo essays which I encourage you to see. The one titled Boomtown is particularly powerful...but for TTP, I chose Ramin's view of Istanbuli life, and also chose this photograph because of its colors and shadow play.

Ramin Rahimian's Istanbul

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NY Times: Captivating Cappadocia

Yoray Liberman/Getty Images, for The New York Times-All Rights Reserved
Here's a fluff travel feature slideshow by the New York Times on Cappadocia in Turkey. The area Cappadocia is in Central Anatolia and is known for its unique moon-like landscape, underground cities, cave churches and houses carved in the rocks.These unusual rock formations were created as a result of eroding rains and winds of thousands of years.

Its troglodyte dwellings carved out of the rock, and its cities dug out into the underground, present an otherworldly appearance. During the Roman era the area served as a shelter for escaping Christians. It is believed that Cappadocia's area is 250 miles in length by about 150 miles in breadth, and it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

I call it a fluff piece because this feature needs more photographs...photographs of the people living in these caves...of their communities...and some audio, either a narration or ambient music by the musician in the above photograph. Since it doesn't have that, it's nothing more than a page filler for the NYT.

The New York Times' Captivating Cappadocia .

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Dagmar Schwelle: Istanbul

Image Copyright © Dagmar Schwelle _ All Rights Reserved
Dagmar Schwelle is an Austrian photographer/photojournalist currently based in Germany. She recently produced her first multimedia gallery of her photographs of the wonderful city of Istanbul, entitled 'Metropolis-In Between'. Her interesting photographs are essentially of Istanbul's street life...some hint at the 'in-between' or the dichotmy of Istanbul. From these, I chose the above photograph taken on one of the city's public ferries. By the way, I admire any photographer who has the guts of beheading anyone like that!

Dagmar's multimedia gallery Istanbul

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Ahmet Ertug: Istanbul

Although Ahmet Ertug is not a travel nor an editorial photographer, his photographic art is such that it's a privilege to post of him here on TTP. Email exchanges with Di Mackey, a fellow photographer and blogger (whose delightful blog Woman Wandering is on my notable blog links on the right hand side) who lived in Istanbul, rekindled my interest in this magnificent city and reminded me of my paltry efforts some ten years ago to photograph its superb Ottoman mosques. I was particularly delighted to see that Ahmet Ertug published a book on Sinan, the genius architect, who built the extraordinary Suleyman mosque in Istanbul.

A Turkish national, Ahmet Ertug studied and practiced architecture in London. He also practiced his chosen profession in Iran and Turkey, and was also deeply involved in photography as a side interest during these formative years. His serious commitment to photography started when he was awarded the Japan Foundation Fellowship to do research on the traditional architecture of Japan in 1979. He traveled extensively in Japan and photographed ancient temples, Zen gardens and festivals.

He returned to Istanbul and became involved in the conservation planning of the historical city, and through this involvement developed his knowledge of the historical city and its monuments. He started photographing the Ottoman and Byzantine monuments in Istanbul using large format cameras, and his resulting exhibitions were shown in Paris, Madrid, Toronto under the auspices of UNESCO.

He uses a 20x25 cm / 8x10 inch large-format camera in his photography of architecture and sculpture. A permanent exhibition of Ahmet Ertug's Hagia Sophia photographs is on display in the upper gallery of Hagia Sophia, in Istanbul.

So visit Ahmet's website and immerse yourself in his imposing architectural photographs. He also has photographs of Asian statues that should'nt be missed.

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Nuri Bilge Ceylan: Turkey Cinemascope

Baker Boy in Urfa-Image Copyright Nuri Bilge Ceylan
While scouting locations for his latest film, the award-winning Turkish film maker Nuri Bilge Ceylan has photographed superb panoramic monochrome scenes all over Turkey during the past five years. These superb photographs were exhibited in international venues, and gleaned clamorous praise from critics and the public.

Ceylan's website offers us 70 panoramic images of exceptional quality and composition. The size of his images is 17x46 inches, and are of archival pigment ink on cotton rag paper. My favorite is the one above, entitled Baker Boy in Urfa. There are many others that I single out, such as Man in Mardin, Mothers & Daughters, Village in Cappadocia and Street in Birgi.

An excerpt from the Evening Standard in London: "Nuri Bilge Ceylan possesses an exceptional sense of composition, and often shot where an arcing road gives views in two directions: Curved Street in Winter, Istanbul, opening onto a hill framed with old houses, and Baker Boy in Urfa, posed between the receding arms of a cobbled alley."

Here's Nuri's website: Turkey: Cinemascope

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