'A good traveller has no fixed plans.' Tao Te Chiang
The Basilica Cistern in Istanbul is an underground wonder, an engineering marvel, dating back to the 6th century. Guidebook photographs show serried columns eerily surrounded by water, echoed in their watery reflections. The water had been drained, unfortunately, when we were there, for repairs, so some of the magic was missing, at least to my [...]
My post last week tried to show something of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul - a glimpse, I hope, of more than just appearances - what does this look like? - but photographs that, perhaps, maybe, if I am lucky, encourage us to ask, what does this mean, what does it represent, what does it [...]
The Hagia Sofia in Istanbul is difficult to grasp, in its sprawling immensity, its architectural grandeur, its layered complexity. You think to yourself, as you look about, at its enormous dome, its towering columns, this place is more than 1400 years old - and where was Europe, back in the fifth century? The Hagia Sophia, [...]
Rosendal, in the Eastern Free State, is a small village with big skies. Rob and I drove down on New Year's Day, from Johannesburg, taking our lives in our hands over the last twenty or thirty kilometres of dangerously potholed roads, a legacy of Ace Magashule's thieving and mendacious premiership of the province. Then you [...]
I love this image of a young man out on the town, in Istanbul, early one evening. With his cool red sneakers, nonchalant cigarette, airy wave of greeting to someone who is out of the frame, he seems an expression of the city, an embodiment of hip young city-dwellers everywhere. Of course, a city as [...]
In the grounds of the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul are the exquisite mausoleums of three Sultans - Mahmut I, Murat III and Selim II. Here are three images, in black-and-white, that express something I hope of what I saw and felt. A woman at prayer, a sleeping cat, a pair of shoes by an entrance. [...]
Turkish ice-cream is thick and sweet, almost toffee-like. This vendor in Istanbul was a master performer and magician. Wielding his ice-cream paddle like a sword, he made ice-creams appear, disappear, whizz around your head with dazzling speed. And he would taunt you - push the ice-cream right into your face, and as you reached for [...]
Baklava, Turkish Delight, tea, coffee, pastries - Istanbul's Hakki Zade 1864 is a place - a palace - of earthly delights. And I love this image, which I took from outside, of a man ordering from the counter, with the reflections of the street in the window above him. It seems a good image to [...]
William Kentridge, as you perhaps know, is one of South Africa's foremost artists, and his spectacular exhibition of sculptures and artefacts at the no less spectacular Norval art museum in Cape Town is simply not to be missed. These images, in black and white, are less about representation of Kentridge's works than a form of [...]
A food tour, on foot, proved to be the best introduction to the vast, over-crowded, overwhelming metropolis that is Istanbul that Rob and I could imagine. Especially as we had just come straight from an idyllic week in rural Aveyron, in the south of France - the contrast could hardly have been greater. [Click on [...]
