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Years ago, I dismissed photography as a pretentious hobby that would be rendered obsolete as smartphone cameras and digital improvements became more ubiquitous, but I have since learned to appreciate the talent behind a good photo.
I only bring this up because I had a similar experience with these photos that I had locally. My Hudson Valley town is a delicate balance of many cultures (primarily white, black, and Central American) and our downtown reflects that blend. Most folks would be quick to dismiss one small storefront with a messy front window of leather goods, sculptures, and various Latin American flags, but inside is an expert leather craftsman from Ecuador who makes most of his products by hand.
I never would have bothered entering the store until a local photographer (once recognized as the "town's photo laureate") featured the store in a few social media posts. Some combination of sharing the craftsman's story and recognizing the beauty throughout the store struck the interest of the rest of the town. Suddenly the eccentric storefront became a destination for everyone (kind of like this colored pencil man's stall)
I tend to dislike photographs of myself. I once spent Christmas at a gathering hosted by a photographer. He spent the evening walking around taking photographs of people/the general goings on. I remember seeing the photographs after and looking at myself/others and thinking "The respect that the photographer has for the people in these photographs is immense". And yeah we all seemed to be having a good time, but there's some extra layer of dignity/worth/soul that he managed to endow everything with, and I felt so grateful to be able to see myself captured in that way. Your comment reminded me a bit of that.
>> Years ago, I dismissed photography as a pretentious hobby that would be rendered obsolete as smartphone cameras and digital improvements became more ubiquitous.
Actually, smartphone cameras make photography even much more accessible. I don't want to sound old, but perhaps you remember 3 or 4 decades ago where all people took pictures with film. It's a limited media (usually 36 frames or less on bigger formats). No instant feedback (have to send them to film lab to be developed or do it on your own darkroom). And for some, indeed photography was a relatively expensive hobby.
Now the barrier is much much lower. Smartphone camera techs are getting better. And you don't need high end PC running Lightroom/Photoshop etc for image editing. Simply use smartphone apps. These are good enough for most of us, social media oriented persons.
Sure, if you want better image quality, eventually you'll upgrade to camera with bigger image sensor (M43, APSC etc) like the pros do.
I'd say smartphone cameras render compact digital point & shoot useless, instead.
When a photographer compliments another photographer, they rarely say "you have a good camera."
They say "you have a good eye."
Any idea what his town of origin might be? The leather workers in the southern highlands of Ecuador (talabarteros, often specializing in saddles) are exceptional.
Years ago, I dismissed photography as a pretentious hobby that would be rendered obsolete as smartphone cameras and digital improvements became more ubiquitous
You just listed a couple tools for photography though. If anything they will lower the barrier of entry for photography and more people will participate (pretty much what happened)
Here's a rough translation for anyone interested in the text in the article:
The world of Colored pencils
Going through the narrow alleys of the stationary bazaar, there's a name that's familiar to all and an address that's hacked on all the tradespeople's minds. If you're looking for colored pencils, everyone'll point you to Mr. Rafieh's shop. "It's been thirty years that I get my energy from setting up kids with their colored pencil box. At the moment I have one of the biggest collections of colored pencils.", he says. Beginner and professional painters alike come to him for recommendations on colored pencils. The rare old models from the west or the ones produced in the country, he has them all. Mr. Rafieh's colorful stall has been drawing the attention of passerby for many years now.
Thank you very much for that.
There was a BBC documentary called The Secret History of Writing, where a Turkish calligrapher talks about how they save all their pencil shavings and after the person dies the pencil and paper scraps of their lifetime are used to heat the water that will clean their body as part of the burial process.
It fills me with a deep sorrow knowing that I will never be able to visit Iran as an American. I don't know if it's just the "forbidden fruit" aspect of it or not, but it's my number one bucket list destination.
I am an Iranian-American (dual citizen) and I suggest you to NOT visit Iran. You may be subjected to arbitrary arrests.
P.S. I haven't visited Iran since high school over 12 years ago and I miss my friends and family there so much.
Lots of people from USA are visiting Iran. We travel to Shiraz regularly and even during the previous presidency we have witnessed planes full of Americans travelling there. It was quite hopeful for all as it demonstrated USA is not a narrow minded bunch… quite the opposite!
>planes full of Americans travelling there
Unlike the rest of the world, Americans can only visit with organized tours.[0]
[0]Unless you've got some Persian relatives you're visiting.
I want to visit too and I know why - the history and culture.
Unfortunately like many middle-east countries the government is not representative of the people.
don't say never. Until forty years ago you could have visited the country without problem. Maybe in a few years you will be able to, again. International politics is cruel, unpredictable and complex, but also fast paced. You can also acquire a different nationality and travel under your new passport.
I'm not sure what your situation is but I know Americans that have gone through an intermediate country
>I'm not sure what your situation is but I know Americans that have gone through an intermediate country
It's possible, sure. But the risk of arbitrary detention would make it impossible to enjoy. The state department currently lists Iran as "Level 4: Do not travel", and suggests you have a will in order if you do [0]. There was a brief moment towards the end of the Obama era where it seemed things may have been thawing, but with the Soleimani assassination I don't have much hope for the future in that regard.
[0] https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/...
iran - and many other countries in the world - could take you happily as a hostage if your government is considered an enemy.
I think your fear is misguided.
You may never see Iran...but not because you are an American. Instead, it is because Iran is a ticking time bomb.
Once the country opens back up, and it will open back up - you have to question whether there will be anything left to see.
Civil war is a nasty thing. See: Syria.
I recommend you visit now before its too late.
> Iran is a ticking time bomb
I don't think so. Sure, its a dictatorship and flawed in many ways, but that doesn't mean the people are not happy.
Society will bear some amount of constant pressure, to a certain degree.
If that pressure progresses into a puncture, society will rupture.
So far, Iran doesn't seem to be in that situation.
Iran has been in its current state since 1979. That is 40 whole years. And we have not seen any major shifts in their society.
It looks stronger than ever, now that Iraq and Afghanistan (thanks to the trigger happy policy of America) are in the dumps, Iran is a strong and critical player.
Why is it certain that opening up Iran would lead to Civil war?
When I read your first paragraph I assumed you were referring to these mom and pop kinda shops going out of business once the economy develops, replacing them with cookie cutter malls or online retail.
I feel the same way about Cuba. My Uncle worked there as a banker and almost my entire family visited him there at one time or another.
I asked him once when it opened up again why he hadn't gone back. He said the trips are forced tours and that he wouldn't be free to get a car and revisit the haunts of his youth.
I made up my mind that I wouldn't visit Cuba until the communists were gone. I was pretty confident after Castro the government would fall. Now I am not so sure.
Direct flights to Cuba have been available since 2016. You can go whenever you want minus any pending revolution.
Half of Miami seems to be pretty sure atm.
I wouldn't be suprised if the military rebelled within a few days.
So much for freedom, right? After all, the US has a very loud voice on all things freedom related but when it comes to the rights of its own citizens to do as they please the degree of freedom appears to be lower than that of many states that have lesser profile in the freedom department. Countries should not limit their citizens freedoms on the basis of politics, that's no different than the various dictatorships that want to keep their people in (and the foreigners out), it's just a matter of degree.
Whether it is safe - or wise - to do so is another matter.
US citizens are allowed to go to Iran. The state department has issued a travel advisory, but it was issued on the basis of kidnappings and arbitrary arrests of U.S. citizens.
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/...
I'd be his regular customer if I lived there. The curation he provides is very valuable; I found this out over the past few years as we went through different brands of colored pencils. Even brands I remember from growing up as my favorite ones turn out to be so bad compared to the best I managed to find. The main two properties I found useful to look at is the color saturation and resistance to cracking of the lead, especially under sharpening.
Some noname sets found randomly in clearance bins are so bad some of the colors could not be sharpened even once. Maybe I need a different kind of sharpener.
Wow Tehran is full of beautiful things that even someone from Iran like me doesn't know
I've spent half a day looking through pictures of Iran from before the revolution, it was - and in many ways probably still is - an absolutely amazing country. Sooner or later the mullahs will be given their walking papers and hopefully the country can then recover some of its former splendor.
Wonderful gallery! Interesting sharpening technique in image 7 with a blunt writing tip. Typically you'd seen a more angled cone [0] and a sharper end, but I guess this means no color is wasted when doing the initial sharpening?
Anyone note a list of his brands? I think I see some Faber-Castell but can't ID anything else.
Image 6 just looks like he is holding 2 pencils. Is he actually sharpening them?
However he does it, I don't think he is using a razor based sharpener, just look at the rough points in image 15.
To anybody with a cynical view of Iran and its people I highly recommend watching this fairly recent documentary about a British guy riding a motorcycle through the country. The people seem like some of the most friendly in the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2LEgowbzSc
> To anybody with a cynical, narrow-minded view of Iran and its people I highly recommend ...
Do you expect any reader of this comment to say to themselves "Ah, that's me!"?
The humble pencil is truly an amazing invention. The Gutenberg press of writing instruments.
He was interviewed for a TV segment in 2018, seems like a cool guy.
I love this.
I'm wondering how well he knows his inventory. Like, can you ask for one particular pencil that's stuck in the middle of one of those shelves, and he goes and pulls it right out?
My guess would be that the pencils of the same property are on each shelf, and the older stuff are buried under newer ones.
For example, one of the labels says "oily pencils".
So perhaps when you go to him and ask for a purple pencil he pulls out a number of purple ones from the bunch that's relevant to you. Then he explains which one is better for you.
Kind of like Ollivader from Harry Potter haha.
It's a colorful stall, that's for sure.
Does he make the pencils there?
I can't read the writing in the photos but it looks like there are no prices (I don't see any numbers). Can someone who is able to read this chime in?
https://media.ana.press/old/1399/09/24/637435502248341625_lg...
[R to L]: White Pencil. Tailor's White Pencil. White Oil Pencil.
One the side it says "single colored pencils 250 Tomans". The front matter appears to be a verse from Qur'an and below it in Farsi he declares he has 'entrusted all matters to God, the same God that is the protector of its creation'.
I don’t think he made the pencils, but he has a huge collection apparently from the basic ones to some ancient ones.
I searched a bit online and I couldn’t find any online shop or price samples for the store.
This is their instagram page, but not sure if it adds any more information:
>Does he make the pencils there?
The pencils in this photo[1] say 'Germany', so my guess is no.
[1] https://www.ana.press/photo/548339/%D8%AF%D9%86%DB%8C%D8%A7%...
I put a translation in another comment. I don't think he makes them, or at least there's nothing that suggests that in the text. He's more of a collector.
I fear that Mr. Rafieh's webstore is either going to feel the HN hug...or his web hosting bill may be quite high for the month.
A mightily photogenic place, so much colour!
I saw the pencil shop collection. Its really amazing
Just wonderful.