Post-bark Trauma

Out of the blue, a small dog, sitting on the lap of its heavily made-up owner, barks at B. Of all the people rushing by in the street, it decides that there is something wrong with B, and only B. Seemingly calm, B keeps on walking. Dogs are known to have acute senses, he says to himself. "What was it? The rucksack? Something out of the ordinary in my appearance or smell...or thoughts? Something noone but a dog can sense? Maybe I exude a sinister aura? Or could it be that whatever irritated the ugly beast is indeed visible to everyone, nevertheless is something one tends to keep silent about." In any case, a seed of self-doubt has been planted. Pre-bark, B had one worry less. Post-bark, he's thrown off-balance. One could even argue that he's a different man now. B keeps on walking, but somewhat more insecure, wondering what that stupid dog noticed in him. Although another possibility, he considers, is that he's yet again being too thin-skinned; a burden he knows to have carried his whole life.

The Lead Pack

Injury prevented me from competing in the Istanbul Marathon for a few years. It took me quite some time to shake off that frustration; but eventually, I set myself to photograph the event instead. Especially the elites, who I would normally never be able to set eyes on during a race. Here are the lead runners storming past me in 2019.

I had photographed the 2017 and 2018 marathons as well, however non of the photos from those two years are satisfactory for various reasons: wrong place, wrong light, bad luck etc. Prior to the 2019 race I scouted various locations, thinking about the background and direction of light expected at the time of the event.

As a hopeless print connoisseur, I should add a couple to this post. The first one is on 24x30 cm Ilford Classic, the second on 30x40 cm Forte Fortezo (FN4). Anybody remember Fortezo? Single grade and just wonderful! I still have a few of 10 sheet 30x40 cm packets.

In hindsight, that roll of FP4 on the second print seems ridiculous; it reeks of instagram vanity. Consider its presence as an indicator of scale. Still, the film I used for this photo was indeed FP4, my all time favourite (developed in home-mixed D76 1+1).

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Recently I found some old and long forgotten color negs in my archive. Unfortunately, they are in pretty bad shape. I have no idea where and exactly when this photo was made (1993 or '94 maybe), neither who took it, but here I am, poor old sod in the middle, the lead pack probably far ahead, pushing through the 3000m steeplechase torture at a university race. The clock tells me that most of the pain is yet to come.