“This particular image was made at a school on the outskirts of a town called Hakkari which lies very close to the Iraq border. On the evening we arrived at our hotel we were visited by the police who had come to tell us that the only real road leading out of the town had been blown up. At first we thought there had been some kind of an attack, but in fact it was being blown up in order to start new work enlarging the road. They cheerfully told us that it probably wouldn’t be open again for a few days and that the only other road out was over a mountain pass which wasn’t so easy to navigate! I’m working with a 4×5 camera was lucky with the light on this occasion. In many of the other schools I’d really struggled with there not being enough light inside, or there being impossibly bright sunlight outside. I usually asked the teachers if there were any sisters who might like to be photographed together, and so of course these two almost identical small girls presented themselves to me.”

“This particular image was made at a school on the outskirts of a town called Hakkari which lies very close to the Iraq border. On the evening we arrived at our hotel we were visited by the police who had come to tell us that the only real road leading out of the town had been blown up.

At first we thought there had been some kind of an attack, but in fact it was being blown up in order to start new work enlarging the road. They cheerfully told us that it probably wouldn’t be open again for a few days and that the only other road out was over a mountain pass which wasn’t so easy to navigate!

I’m working with a 4×5 camera was lucky with the light on this occasion. In many of the other schools I’d really struggled with there not being enough light inside, or there being impossibly bright sunlight outside. I usually asked the teachers if there were any sisters who might like to be photographed together, and so of course these two almost identical small girls presented themselves to me.”

@1 year ago with 9 notes
(± )
#Vanessa Winship #Sweet Nothings 

In “Sweet Nothings” Vanessa Winship has been taking photographs of schoolgirls from the borderlands of Eastern Anatolia. 

“I had been living and working in the region for almost a decade, and in Turkey itself for more than four years. I was drawn by ideas of borders and belonging. One enduring image that had always struck me wherever I travelled was the schoolgirls in their little blue dresses, the same in every town, city or village.

I wanted to make a series of portraits of these girls on the borderlands. Knowing their status I wanted to give a space for the girls to have a moment of importance in front of a camera. I decided to use a slower, formal way of making the pictures to create this space. Every frame was made at the same distance to ensure a kind of equality to each girl. I hoped symbol of the uniform, the distance in repetition, and the austerity of the landscape would represent one thing, but I also hoped more than anything, in the expressions of the girls faces, to draw attention to the idea of these young girls poised at the moment “just before”.” - Vanessa Winship


© Vanessa Winship from the series “Sweet Nothings”  

© Vanessa Winship from the series “Sweet Nothings”

© Vanessa Winship from the series “Sweet Nothings”

© Vanessa Winship from the series “Sweet Nothings”

© Vanessa Winship from the series “Sweet Nothings”

 

@1 year ago with 2 notes
(± )
#Vanessa Winship #Sweet nothings 
“This particular image was made at a school on the outskirts of a town called Hakkari which lies very close to the Iraq border. On the evening we arrived at our hotel we were visited by the police who had come to tell us that the only real road leading out of the town had been blown up. At first we thought there had been some kind of an attack, but in fact it was being blown up in order to start new work enlarging the road. They cheerfully told us that it probably wouldn’t be open again for a few days and that the only other road out was over a mountain pass which wasn’t so easy to navigate! I’m working with a 4×5 camera was lucky with the light on this occasion. In many of the other schools I’d really struggled with there not being enough light inside, or there being impossibly bright sunlight outside. I usually asked the teachers if there were any sisters who might like to be photographed together, and so of course these two almost identical small girls presented themselves to me.”
1 year ago
#Vanessa Winship #Sweet Nothings 

In “Sweet Nothings” Vanessa Winship has been taking photographs of schoolgirls from the borderlands of Eastern Anatolia. 

“I had been living and working in the region for almost a decade, and in Turkey itself for more than four years. I was drawn by ideas of borders and belonging. One enduring image that had always struck me wherever I travelled was the schoolgirls in their little blue dresses, the same in every town, city or village.

I wanted to make a series of portraits of these girls on the borderlands. Knowing their status I wanted to give a space for the girls to have a moment of importance in front of a camera. I decided to use a slower, formal way of making the pictures to create this space. Every frame was made at the same distance to ensure a kind of equality to each girl. I hoped symbol of the uniform, the distance in repetition, and the austerity of the landscape would represent one thing, but I also hoped more than anything, in the expressions of the girls faces, to draw attention to the idea of these young girls poised at the moment “just before”.” - Vanessa Winship


© Vanessa Winship from the series “Sweet Nothings”  

© Vanessa Winship from the series “Sweet Nothings”

© Vanessa Winship from the series “Sweet Nothings”

© Vanessa Winship from the series “Sweet Nothings”

© Vanessa Winship from the series “Sweet Nothings”

 

1 year ago
#Vanessa Winship #Sweet nothings