A Seattle Afternoon

Shadows of La Boqueria

Barcelona is hot and humid in July. Late afternoons, when the temperature is becoming a bit more bearable, the light starts dancing with all the shapes and old architecture. La Boqueria food market, full of tourists, becomes a place of paradoxes. We are all eager to see the culture, the history, the people, and much more, however, all of us are playing a small role to strip the place of all of those things. We all rush to a place to absorb all those fantasies in our minds not knowing that we are all participating in destroying what we all came for. In such situations a photographer needs to find the shadows to maybe hide parts of reality that we are facing today.

Getting Lost on the Streets of Barcelona

When I close my eyes I see the narrow alleys of Barcelona with flags and clothes hanging from balconies of tall Gothic buildings. The heat and humidity of summer afternoons, children playing in El Gracia, skateboarders of El Raval, sidewalk patios of Eixample, thousands of tourists with their backpacks on the front because of pickpockets walking Las Ramblas, and the old man sipping Catalonian wine and feeding birds on the shore, all contribute to the identity of Barcelona as a city.

Every afternoon many young people gather around Centre de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona in El Raval and practice their skateboarding skills. Some also play soccer or practice dance moves. El Raval is an interesting neighborhood in Barcelona that is old and multicultural. It certainly worth visiting.

Gerdeh Bakery - گرده پزی

Gerdeh (نان گرده) is one of the traditional breads of Hamadan province which is located in western Iran near Zagros mountain range. In addition to the special dough used for this flat bread, egg  yolks and aromatic vegetables are used for making this bread taste and smell amazing. There are two types of Gerdeh based on how much egg yolks they use: single yolk Gerdeh (گرده یک زرده), and double yolk Gerdeh (گرده دو زرده) .

The bread is cooked in a tanoor (tandoor -تنور)  and then given to the customers hot right out of tanoor. I hope you can all enjoy Gerdeh someday since this is amazing, specially when eaten fresh out of the tanoor.

You can also check out my other post about making Gerdeh in a village in Zagros Mountains.

Donair Shop, Istanbul, Turkey

While traveling in Istanbul, I was wandering around streets and back alleys to understand the Turkish street culture one tiny bit at a time. There are a lot of similarities between Iranian and Turkish culture and they also have their differences. This photo was taken on Istiklal street close to Taksim square in 2014.