Photography failures from Istanbul

Yesterday I posted some shots on 35mm film from my trip to Istanbul, Turkey. I realised I hadn't posted much from that trip, and have had several rolls of film sitting around unposted. This set of images is from that same roll of film from the boat trip, but from a different day. In this set, I was heading back from a small, overpriced aquarium just as the sun was setting. It sounds like fun, but this was an insanely stressful day. Istanbul had some of the most unreliable public transport I had ever seen, with such broken development and consideration of a city I have ever seen. Just to get to the station was a nightmare in its own. Often enough, the bus would simply never arrive. The trains were unreliable. And most of public transport was severely overpopulated, making travelling a horror show in the heat. During this trip back, I wanted to capture more of the lines that are surrounding train stations, I often refer to stations as cheat codes for photography due to their leading lines and compositions which are present all over. Though it seems the film didn't really enjoy this station, or the train. The colours are definitely off, and the exposure was certainly not entirely correct.

I have an idea of what I wanted from these images, they had potential, but it was missed in the pursuit of the images. The ride on the train was bumpy, the 50mm focal length made things a bit tight on these more narrow trains as well. I could've changed the perspectives a little bit, but it was difficult with so many people looking at me and the camera; the last thing I wanted was people looking at me in the images, let alone anyone in the images at all. Hence why these images are mostly empty, attempts at capturing moments of void, areas where there are no people. Trains in motion, the colours and compositions of the doors, the view outside as the train moved from one space to another. I did want to capture the station when it was idle, but that wasn't happening. I stood for about five to ten minutes in hopes of seeing the station empty up, but it never came. Hunger kicking in, time passing by, I made the decision to just attempt the composition with people. It didn't work out.

So, I consider most of these images failures. Compositions and tests that just don't do anything for me. Where I know I could've done better, that something is off in the images and how they could've been improved. I think to some degree I just wasn't feeling it that day, with the tiredness of travel hitting hard, and the stress of the public transport just making me desperately want to return back to where I was staying, knowing I could relax and escape the endless crowds and dense tobacco smoke. But part of photography isn't about capturing perfect images always, but the memories contained even in the failures. So it's all still a bit of fun in the end, isn't it?

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