"What makes the perfect picture?"

On 24 November, I will be taking part in a talk hosted by The Team design agency at The Embassy Tea Gallery in Bankside. Together with two other photographers, I will be discussing the subject of 'What makes the perfect picture'. Very intriguing!

This is an invitation-only event. Please follow this link to go to The Team website and register if you would like to attend.

More information to follow closer to the date.

Making cymbals

While spending some time in Istanbul recently, I managed to get an invitation to Bosphorus Cymbals, one of the few companies that still manufacture cymbals in pretty much the same way they have been made in Turkey for centuries. 

Today’s big cymbal makers such as Zildjian, Paiste or Sabian churn out millions of cymbals a year and most of them are, at least partly, computer-designed and machine made. 

Not so here, where 15 trained cymbal makers create just 200 cymbals per week and each one of them is completely handcrafted. Once the copper-tin metal mixture has been cast into blanks, these are rolled through machines that vaguely resemble printing presses, the metal sheets are hand-hammered into shape. Finally some cymbals are lathed to give them their final thickness (others remain un-lathed for a drier sound and rougher look).

It’s hard to believe – but visually very attractive – that these high-quality instrument are made in a shack on the outskirts of Istanbul that resembles a medival blacksmith’s workshop. What’s even more astonishing is the fact that not one of the people working here is a musician, let alone a drummer.

More photos can be found here.