Sunday, November 15, 2009

crossing bridges


Lately the crossing of bridges seems to have become a recurring theme in my life. In the past five weeks, I've walked across the Bosphorus Bridge, crossed Budapest's green Szabadság híd three times, Széchenyi lánchíd once, the Margit Bridge once, Árpád híd once, and the Galata bridge twice. There's something wonderful about walking over water, passing from one land to the other.

I love bridges, I always have. I was deeply in love with San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, and had crossed it too many times to count. I was even once proposed to in the middle of its orange span. Here's a fact that few people are aware of— the Golden Gate, which is the opening of San Francisco's Bay to the Pacific, was named after Istanbul's Golden Horn. Yesterday, I spent a few hours on both sides of the Golden Horn, both above the Galata Bridge and beneath it. There are a number of fish restaurants under the bridge, most cater to tourists and are priced so, but for a cup of tea, some börek and a sketch, you can easily spend ten lira for a beautiful hour.


I think I'm going to do a life-sized pencil drawing of the man selling simit— I'm really happy with how the photograph turned out and would love to draw his face.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I found you originally through a sketching site, and took a look at your blog out of sheer nosiness. You are very good at telling a story which is why I love reading your posts, but looking at these sketches, it has reminded me of how I fist saw you. I think that for some reason, these sketches here work better than the photographs. They are so good and you obviously take time and care.

albina said...

It is magical, the crossing of bridges over water: everyone is a passage.

Lovely photos and sketches, as always... I feel the rhythms of that city through your drawings.

szaza said...

Thank you so much, BellaStella! I deeply enjoy sketching. There's so much inspiration here, it gets difficult to choose what to draw and what to pass on.

Thank you Albina :)
I love bridges, water and ferries. There is a definitely a magic to water and crossing it, from either above or in it.

Kerstin Klein said...

Did you ever complete the ink drawing of the man selling the sesame rings?