Cappadocia

Geologist believes that the formation of these lands goes back 30 million years. When the volcanoes erupted the land covered with a blanket of ash. Over time ash solidified into tuff,  more time past

tuff worn away creating symphony of shapes, and some called them  fairy chimneys who believed
that once fairies lived there.

Photography:AydanAkalin©2006

PUBLIC SPACE

"The question of the city as a work of art , however, presents itself explicitly

and scientifically above all in relation to the concepton of the nature of collective artifacts,

and I maintain that no urban research can ignore this aspect of the problem. How are collective urban artifact related to works of art? All great manifestations of social life have in common with

the work of art the fact that they are born in unconscious life. This life is collective in the former, individual in the latter;but this only secondary difference because one is a product of the public and the other is for the public: the public provides the common denominator. "

Aldo Rossi

The Architecture of the City

SMO©2012

Lazy Morning 

Another work day ! my legs were acting up against my schedule, reluctantly I get  up and dressed. Half an hour later  I was in the tunnel headed for downtown. I had an appointment for an eye exam. When I come out of the Chambers Street Subway station the city appeared lost of her colors, buildings, shops, cars, people, they were resembling the old faded black and white  photographs forgotten years in the some one's attic. The sun was hiding behind the clouds, grounds were covered with moving bodies of gray objects. I felt cold chill on my skin, the temperature must be dropped down down drastically over the night. There was a construction activity going on ; construction barriers set up both end of the Chamber street,  no vehicle traffic allowed.  Couple of heavly dressed flag man  were guiding the traffic, I wait few minutes, stand there aimlessly, pretending not knowing which direction to go, I watched her; the flag women, she must be in her twenties, medium height , dark brown eyes,  she was wearing a hoody, under her hard hat, she was holding a slow sign , her construction clothes were clean, did not seem she was one of them, I look around to see if there is a camera crew; may be they are shooting a commercial  I thought, but no one was seemed to be  around, others paid no attention to her.
Every now and then here crowd of people pouring in and out of the Subway station, piling up on the intersection, a little later disappearing among the buildings. Cross the street I spotted a brand name coffee shop, I had a urge for caffeine; quickly cross the street and I walked in the shop, I noticed the place was annoyingly  packed, "s" shape line formed in front of serving counter, a young women walking along the line taking customers orders; there must be radical surge on the numbers of caffeine addicts this morning, I reasoned. I walked out of the store with a warm cup of tall bold in my hand, I checked the time, it was quarter past nine, I had another fifteen minutes to kill before the appointment. I walked back towards the little triangle park between W. Broadway and Hudson Street, Bogardus Garden, named after a famed 19th century New York City architect James Bogardus, who is success came from a series of cast Iron structures, eventually lead to widespread use of steel frame construction throughout  the city. From the distance I noticed sparkling shinny crystals on the low reaching shrubbery, when I get close I realized they were no other then frozen icicles,  the nature paradox were at work, entire foreground of the garden covered with icicles shone like diamonds, above and behind full blown cherry-blossom trees were smiling, after all it was April 27th.

SMO©2012

KALEIDOSCOPE

SMO© 2011

THERE ARE  SOME RARE MOMENTS IN PEOPLES LIFE ONE CAN SUDDENLY
FOUND HIMSELF/ HERSELF OUTSIDE OF AN ORDINARY EXISTENCE. LAST
YEAR, ONE LATE SATURDAY AFTERNOON IN MAY, WHEN I WALK INTO
WEST WING OF THE MUSEUM,  I HAVE HAD ONE SUCH EXPERINCE.
THE SPACE ENTIRELY WRAPPED  BY THE PRISMATIC PATTERNS  OF GIANT
SKYLIGHTABOVE ME. SOFT LATE AFTERNOON SPRING SUN  GENTLE
CASCADED ON THE SURFACE OF CONCRETE SIDE WALLS.  THIS WAS AS
CLOSE AS I CAN GET TO MY DISTANT CHILDHOOD MEMORY.
LOOKING  THROUGH THE HOLE OF  THE KALEIDOSCOPE  DISCOVERING
A BRAND NEW UNIVERSE.
  

WRAPPED IN PLASTIC

Suicide by satallite.

Someone who passes this orbit again

will hear strange sounds:

across millions of miles of empty space,

a phantom cosmonaut, his effort

unrelenting, perpetually tapping out

one last message

no one can decipher.

Henri Michaux

copyright©SMO 2012 

DETAIL

SMO©2012

Forest Hills Gardens in Queens, New York, 142 -acre commuter suburb.  Designed by Frederick   Olmsted Jr.  (July 24, 1870- December 25, 1957 ) After a more than 100 years from its inception
 surviving,  rather detoriated condition elegant wrought iron detailing offer a glimpse to heyday of modern suburbian arcadia.

ANXIETIES

...

"He ate a Monoprix TV dinner- monkfish in parsley sauce, from their Gourmet line - washed down with a mediocre Valdepenas. After some hesitation, he put the bird's body into a plastic bag, which he topped off with a beer bottle and dumped in the trash chute. What was he supposed to do- say mass? "*

*Michel Houellebecq: The Elementary Particles

"Shortly after waking, I feel myself transported
To a different universe, its contours ruled and picked
I know about this life, its datails are all sorted
It's very like a questionnaire, with boxes to be ticked."*

*Michel Houelllebecq: Platform

SMO2012©

THE LIMITED

  ' Hegel's notionof dynamic conceptualization (Bewegung des Begriffs ) presupposes that  truth cannot

    be expressed directly and immediately but must aim  instead  at identifying  the particular, the limited,

    the dead  and the false.'

    THEODOR ADORNO

SMO© 2011

PURE 'N 'SIMPLE

STEPS

SMO©2011

STATION

SMO©

Ermita de San Antonio de la Florida

Final resting place of great Spanish artist Goya. Chapels ceiling painted by the Goya himself in 1798
Frescoes portray a miracle by Saint Anthony of Padua.

SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, SEGOVIA, SPAIN

SMO©

Smell of an old Book

  "well, I was  made for fellowship in love,

not fellowship in hate"

Antigone

Marble copy of the head of chryselephatine statue.

Couple of days ago I picked up the three volume set of out of print Greek Civilization

by Andrea Bonnard from a seller of the  downtown used book store. They were still in the original box. The box was severely damaged, the cardboard covering the  was missing, and side edges were torn apart. Comparing the price tag and they their age, I was pleased with their condition. They were first published in America in 1959 that put them  in 53, not a bad age for a book, considering they are exempt from the routine annoyances of man in a similar age..yet they are not fully immune to man made atrocities of our shared  environment. I thought that the books are  aged more gracefully than their master. I placed  my new possesions  on my dinning table, next few days  they remained untouched.

I patiently contemplate our first date untill this morning, then I moved them 

carefully to their new location, next to the my favored corner in the house. Outside the 

rain has just stopped,  the sun lights coming through window gentle warmed up my corner

I slowly picked first volume of the series and start turning the pages, suddenly there was this smell radiated from those yellowish brown pages I lift the book closer to my face
there it was,. the smell of the distant past... a mixture of aged ink, 

moist wood and glue... what a wonderful feeling that was.

 Comic Figure-perhaps Dosennus

 Ptolemy I

Girl of Antium- Helenistic Period

Photos by Andrea Bonnard, Greek Civilization