Bodrum in Photographs

I went to Bodrum again in July, and it was the first time I had been there in peak summer.

Normally I write a trip up while I am still in it, or in the week I get back, so the post arrives as a day by day log with everything still fresh. This one sat for two months.

So I’m doing it differently. I went back through the photographs from that trip and pulled out the ones that still do something to me, and the post is built around those rather than around the calendar. Each shoot gets a section, and what I write under it is what was going on around the frame rather than a description of what you can already see in it.

The day by day version of Bodrum is in the March and May posts. This one is the memory.

The Kids at Turgutreis

I was in Turgutreis from about quarter to seven, sitting in my usual spot and waiting for the sunset, but this time I was not alone.

Every trip to Bodrum I come to this spot once and watch the sun go down. I like seeing it at different points in the year, in March, in May, and now in July. I normally come on my own. However this time I had company, someone who also appreciated sunsets, so I was happy to take her to this spot. We sat there for a couple of hours talking and watching it, and it was wholesome.

Three kids pull up at Turgutreis on their scooters and start posing the moment I ask.

Three kids pulled up on their scooters while we were sitting there, cheerful and playing around, each of them holding an ice pole. Not one of them had a phone out. They had come down for the same reason we had.

It took me straight back to being their age. My friends and I were always out playing too, though London meant we did it in the city, and we never had a view like this one in front of us.

I cannot remember what I said to them. I asked if I could take their picture, and they got excited and started posing.

The sunset itself that evening was baya stunning. The photographs hold the kids, and the film holds the thing they had come down to watch.

The sun goes into the sea beside the headland at Turgutreis, with the lighthouse on the breakwater to the right.

My favourite part comes after it has gone, in the hour where everything turns moody.

More to follow. I am still going back through the photographs from this trip, and the sections build up as I pick them out.