Writing Exercise # 2 - photos

Cameras on the ready! Prague

I have started flicking photos from when I was aboard, stacking and sorting them for a photobook. A decent share of my photos are out of focus, stark or dim depending on terrible lightening, cluttered with distractions or momentums obscured by hordes of tourists.

Basically I realized most of my photos are crap.

But then I started thinking maybe they aren’t completely terrible after all. Stay with me on this thought, I promise this isn’t me just massaging my fragile ego.

Perhaps my dodgy photos don’t just represent my lack of photography skills but maybe they highlight the atmosphere of each place. It is near on impossible to get a photo of anything in Europe with at least half a dozen people loitering in the frame. Or the out of focus pictures of the fire festival in India was due to the push and crush of the swelling crowd. Or poor lightening in the Vietnamese photos was secondary to monsoonal weather. The off kilter photos of the Himalayans was due to the heady nausea of altitude sickness.

I will heartily admit that someone with skill could easily overcome these challenges, but I intend to make lemonade from these lemons of photos and create a writing exercise:

This week’s writing exercise was to write a short piece based on photos taken on the trip. I wanted to focus less on the obvious aspects of the location and more on the atmosphere captured on lenses.

The quirky photo above inspired me to write about the crowded streets of Prague.

Out of focus (tick), Red eyes (tick), Light Flare (tick). Countless memories of running around Cappadocia (tick). Plus evidence of a Kombi with an attached beatle - seriously too cool for school

Death Sentences and Executions

Last night I found myself doing some heavy reading before going to sleep.

I’ve started researching and verifying facts about the political and social situation of Iran during 2011, as I’m writing the Iranian chapter of my book.

Yesterday Amnesty International released their annual report “Death sentences and Executions: 2011”. Within hours all major news outlets where lighting up with stories about Iran – always handy when researching!

Though the things I learnt made my hair stand on end. Whilst travelling through Iran in September 2011, I fell in love with the country and the culture. I got the impression that Iran had a violent past and whilst insular was coming forward with it’s human rights policies.

In fact as you can see from the pictures we became so comfortable in Iran. The first picture is a ‘dress rehearsal’, of us in Istanbul, Turkey.

'Dress Rehearsal', Istanbul, Turkey

We had been informed that as foreigners we must always wear black or dark colours. That not a inch of skin or hair must be showing. Women must always keep their gaze adverted from men. You must not sit next to a man, unless he is your husband, in public. Let alone touch another man, even for a handshake. We were told that there would be government police as well as tourist police on constant patrol. To say we were nervous would be something of an understatement!

But as you can see from photo two, my headscarf is loose and I’m so relaxed.

Esfahan, Iran

Women appeared to be held in equal stead in Iran. The rules certainly appeared more lax than first anticipated. We were never stopped by police, let alone by tourist police except for a friendly hello. Plus we were allowed to engage eye contact with men without repercussions!

Though the statistics give an entirely different picture of Iran. Executions rose from 252 in 2010 to 360 in 2011. Iran is statistically to have the second highest execution rate in the world (second to China) though the exact numbers can be shady many countries with capital punishment policies, including Iran, carry out secret executions. The Amnesty international report states that it has creditable information for a 274 ‘secret’ executions in Iran during 2011. Typically crimes rendering execution include adultery, sodomy and religious offenses such as apostasy or “treason against God”.

Hanging is the most common mode of execution. In fact the number of hangings had risen so dramatically, that the use of cranes has become common, so a Japanese crane manufacturing company has ceased their imports of cranes into Iran.

Whilst the people I met in Iran were the some of the warmest and most genuine people I have ever met, the government’s policies are extreme to say the least and rigorously put in place.

With an Iranian family in Masouleh, Iran [Note Amy Winehouse style hair]