with the weather -25C outside in Montreal, i am waiting for the next blizzard to go out and take some pictures.
in the meantime, i made some adjustable length straps for my cameras.
Bridle leather with brass hardware.
Latest
Making of a book
I’ve seen the dreamers of my childhood turn into dust.
Hang their hearts up and lay their bodies down.
Still talk like the soldiers we made out of mud,
Yet quiver at the thought of making a sacrifice.
I have been working on a body of work to be published as a book for the last 6 months.
Taking
Developing
printing
arranging
re-arranging
burning
and doing it all over again
Once it is finished, i will start being a photographer again.
once a tumblr, always a tumblr
PoliceandThieves
denizmerdano.tumblr.com
check out my tumblr for photographs I take which don’t fit in this blog nor my website. why not, right???
they still deserve to be seen.
footsteps
Bugun anacugumun dogum gunu, keske kahvaltisini yatagina getirebilseydim.
Nice senelere annelerin en guzeli.
—————————————————————————————————
it’s mom’s birthday. I wish I could have been with her and made her breakfast in bed.
Happy Birthday Mother.
Pint of the Dead
Rico the Zombie and Natasha Nebula..Montreal 2010
www.denizmerdan.com
Deluxe
Fred, 2011
Some love from Nightlife Magazine
A short interview with me is up on Nightlife.ca website this week.
big thanks to Isadora Melluzzoli for the Interview.
UN the band
I had a fantastic time photographing friends Kara Keith and Jennifer Reimer from UN for their PopMontreal promos
Jessica was 2 hours late.
I don’t know how she does it.
2 hours late for a photoshoot.. yet she gave me all she got.
This is what I came up with…
the whole time thinking;
You can not explain to who uses God’s gift to enslave that you used God’s gift to be free….
Somewhere between A and B
The difference between sex for money and sex for free is that , sex for free ends up costing you more.
no la bien paga
I am available to hire for your personal photography needs.
-headshots, editorials, sessions, etc
email me for rates
www.denizmerdan.com
Its worth mentioning that Red and Blue are my favorites…
Lea @ Montage
Ideas for movie titles
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Floater
Adonis
Adonis @ Montage
Terry Richardson vs. Robert Frank : The quest for the perfect camera-man.
This was the toughest comparison i had to make in a long time. Not only my search for honesty in photography was the criteria, also the workflow, quality, originality and down right charisma!
It’s absurd to compare Richardson to Frank in a literal and aesthetic way. So i will only compare their TOOLS and not the photographers themselves.
After all, any camera is available to any photographer at any given time.
Lets Change the title to Yashica T4 Super VS. Konica BigMini
Konica has been in Robert Frank’s hands since it came out, and Terry Richardson have been photographing major assignments with the Yashica for years now.
They seem to be the right tool for what they are using these cameras for. But are they the right tool for you?
P&S Rangefinders by nature, they offer tremendous ease and quality when threatened by big, heavy SLRs
Small, light, fast, quiet and unassuming. Perfect ingredients for the right photographer!
Both offer a 35mm f3.5 lens of different designs. Tessar design on the T4 seems to be slightly sharper than the Konica’s answer. Both upto par with most SLR lenses out there.
They are about the same size in general but the T4 is slightly thicker, making it a delight to hold with one hand, leaving your left hand to fondle the model you are photographing.
But you still look like a douche bag driving a Chevy Cavalier Z24 with the granny rack still attached to it. Nothing pretty about this black blob of plastic!
Konica on the other hand could have very well be designed by Pininfarina . Although there is no lens cover to protect the lens when not in use, you are not a kind of man to throw this in your leather jacket pocket along side of some change, condoms and a pipe if you use this camera daily.
Yes, Konica is prettier, but is it a better performer?
Turning them both on at the same time, Konica growls and screams into life as the lens protrudes its crevices. Its actually quite loud. I make a habit of leaving it on before a quiet performance photography. Its loud enough to make people think that you have a mechanical dick operated by servos. bzzztttt….grrrrrwwwww….thunk!
Yashica, jumps straight into action without much noise and is ready to shoot within seconds. no fuss, no fireworks.
Then you put the camera right to your face. If you are retarded like i am, you will never find the window of the T4 right away. Its not a high magnification window so your face needs to be planted to it to see through it. But once you do, its a dreamy rangefinder. Clear lines, clear image and accurate as a rangefinder can be!
Konica can be further away from your face to see through the window, yet its a shitty view once you do. Blurry and fuzzy.
Yet you get focus confirmation and close-up focus activation symbols! Which are pretty sweet.
Then the heavens open,
you want to make an image.
You see the life as it lays down in it’s birthday suit right infront of you. As fragile and pure as it can be.
You frame;
you press the shutter…
And sudden whirr and clicks of both cameras startle the beauty. Flash, pop, crackle!!!
Konica, again growls like a drunken man in an italian suit driving a Maseratti, and the T4 does it with the precision of a honda v-tec engine. Very un-exciting yet, very efficient.
The controls on both cameras are stupid. No way to push them when you want to, and almost always in the wrong setting!
Buttons are very small and almost impossible to operate with fat fingers or gloves. I have shot with both cameras in -20C weather and they both performed beautifully. Good luck getting the models to pose for you naturally in those conditions anyways. So I am not even sure if this measures into the equation.
I am a big fan of exp. compensation button on the Big Mini. +- 1.5 stop exp. comp with the push of a button. Which also cancels the flash operation. Brilliant!
Perfect for instant over or under exposure for those backlit situations. Yashica also seems to do this automatically, yet you are NEVER aware of it working. So lets just assume the worst and say it doesn’t!
Flash on both cameras are excellent.. suprisingly. and both cameras can focus in near dark!
So lets say, the model was actually good and you managed to burn through 37 dreadful frames(37 frames got to be the most annoying number in the world. You cant put them in sleeves without that one frame just sticking out like a sore thumb)
Let the cameras rewind the film back into the casette. Which will render your camera useless for close to a minute! SLOOOOOWWWWW
SO this is one of those times that having both cameras helps cause you can just keep shooting. Or just buy 2 of the one you decide on!
I loaded mine up with some Kodak Tri-X.
So it needed some souping in XTOL… 1:1…for super fine grain and sharp negatives.
Conclusion?
Konica for those days when i am out to impress the girls.
Yashica for the days when i am out to photograph the girls I already impressed with the Konica.
Konica sells for $30
Yashica selld for $200 these days
Here are some samples from both cameras.
Kristine
Kristine from Dulcedo Chez Moi.
Alexandra
Alexandra from Dulcedo
Website Update
Full L’Orient a L’Occident series now available for viewing at www.denizmerdan.com
Shot entirely on film for the look,feel and intellectuality, Digital will never be able to replicate.
Our love was a reflection of a reflection
I stood in the reflection of the beauty, i let it reflect on me.
i put on her make up. It was the closest I can get to those eyes.
I took her photograph and left. Just to turn around halfway, to see her at the window.
waiting for me to clean her make up… the mess i had made.
www.denizmerdan.com
Click for larger
36 to get 1 right
Photographer Adam Hendrik posing for a Camera-Lens-Film-Scan test.
L’orient a L’Occident
A Deniz Merdan Editorial
Produced by XO Productions
Art direction by Elena Ferrato
Clothing by http://www.aquadilara.com/
Jewelery by http://www.micalla.com/
Memory
Now close your eyes for a second and imagine yourself 3 years old. Dig into the tightest crevices of your cerebrum . You’ve never met the 3 year old you. Yet you remember instances from that little person. and especially 3 primary things. The things that define you, define her and define whatever could have happened.
Smell
Sound
Image
Smell you just can’t forget..a sense you can’t deafen. and only gets stronger if you don’t use it. Mom’s cooking, the mountain air, and her hair. Her hair which smelled like a freshly reaped wheat field. Rich, golden, humble.
Sounds she made as we fell a sleep. The half word, the half moan the half open lips. It’s the sound that brought me home, to my home, to her home.
Her Eyes? I saw the world through her eyes… the eyes that saw me, i saw. She looked at the photographs i took; some she didn’t care for, some she took, Sometimes i thought ” she should be the one photographing.. with those eyes, she must see the world better than i can.
I remember it all
How old am I?
I am 4…
Model: Catherine from Dulcedo
