Galina Karasoy - weekly post #9

Carolyn Drake

Kazakhstan. Aralsk. 2009. Sea bream, part of a permanent exhibition of endangered species displayed at the History Museum of Aralsk, a former Soviet fishing port on the Aral Sea.

 Damla. Turkmenistan. 2009. A clay house in Damla ("drop of water"), a village in the Karakum desert in which rain water is the only source of water.

China. Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Kashgar. 2009. Apartment complex built for Uyghurs displaced from their homes and businesses as the Old Town in Kashgar was torn down.

Carolyn Drake was born in California and is now based in Athens, Georgia.

Between 2007 and 2013, Carolyn traveled frequently to Central Asia from her base in Istanbul to work on two projects which became acclaimed photo books. One of them is Two Rivers that explores the connections between ecology, culture and political power along the Amu Dary and Syr Darya rivers. Sere landscape of Central Asia aquires bright and even defiant colors in Carolyn's works.

First image strikes by its simplicity, work of complimentary colors as well as position of subject of the scene.  First of all, it is really unusual to see big fish in the small tank. This fact makes viewer confused because apparently we don't expect to see alive objects in still life composition. That leads to another conclusion that fish is dead. Photographer creates dramatic atmosphere with highlights on the left side of image and shadows on the right. However, complimentary colors right in the middle of image build great contrast. Vertical lines on the wall and object, in addition to horizontal line, closed to the center, emphasize even more on the tank with the fish altogether.

The second image is composed with lack of colors that, once again, grabs attention of the viewer. Starry night and the silhouette of the house in complete darkness complimented with bright yellow light braking through wooden door. It is just a little rectangle on the image of almost gray scale composition, but it plays the most important role – yellow color of light inside of the house and blue stars maintain contrast of whole photograph. Therefore, light in the image seems to be symbolic – in the darkness of quiet night it reminds us of life and it is being a “lighthouse” for lost wanderer in the desert.

This image is street photograph. It is obviously based on vibrant and even provoking color scheme. Primary colors of blue, red and yellow “devour” the viewer. Image represents traditional view of the street of the region as well as traditionally dressed women. Moreover, even seat on the scooter is covered with traditional patterned carpet. We can see dual emotions of both women. One of them is suspiciously looks with no favor on straight at the photographer, while another woman smiles happily, suspecting nothing about her picture is taken. Composition transmits more than just a moment, it silently explains quality of streets, neighborhood and life overalls. Bars on the window on the first floor say how unsafe it can get that people try to put themselves in the prison. Tacky brick colored paint from the walls, scaffolding, old wooden door and cartoon pieces could represent type of work those people do for living which is work in constructions.

I really enjoy “Two Rivers” project by Carolyn Drake and I think she did excellent job to transmit atmosphere of places she has been. I can’t say that pictures evoke in me travel spirit and I would like to see those places on my own, however, It definitely explores a lot of different perspectives of Asian countries, their culture, the way of they preserve traditions and life style. Besides on the subject and storytelling compositions, I have learnt how effective color could be. Dull and murky landscapes become flamboyant and vivid through exploration of different color schemes.