‘I was under a huge tree, watching the droplets fall’: Can Manap’s best picture
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The photographer on capturing an unexpected image in Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar

Outside a jeweller’s courtyard in Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar, Can Manap watched the rain fall. “I was under a huge tree in the middle of the bazaar,” he says. “Watching the droplets fall, the composition – a marriage of natural and architectural lines – struck me immediately.”



While Manap had his camera on him, he decided to capture this scene with his phone instead. “Photography often lies in the art of noticing,” he says. “Roland Barthes writes about the ‘punctum’ of a photograph – an element that unexpectedly affects the viewer. In this case, the punctum is the tree’s upward reach, symbolising a quiet defiance against the confines of its surroundings.”

He opted in the editing to remove any distracting colour. “I chose black and white to emphasise the textures and amplify the composition’s strengths and details. Photography is not merely about seeing but feeling and interpreting. It’s about bridging what is visible and what is sensed.”

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