New Site

After almost 2 years of knowing I needed to switch my site to faster hosting, I’ve finally switched to a new host and redone the site using a new theme. So I’ve probably lost some pictures and broken links along the way, but at least my blog is finally usable again! So, let’s see – I’m in Moscow, Russia again and having a great time. Work’s going well and I’m getting out to a bunch of folk rock concerts and re-enactment festivals when the weather’s nicer. When it’s not, I’ve been getting a lot of knitting done. Only got into [...]

Impressionist Photography – Tallinn, Estonia

  I just spent another three weeks in Tallinn, Estonia, and after seeing how grungy the city was in March snowmelt (Tallinn is utterly lovely, but the end of winter always looks like nature has a hangover) I decided that moody, blurry black and whites might be a good thing. I saw some gorgeous photos of that sort on Flickr taken using a specialized lens called a “Lensbaby” (manufacturer’s site here if you’re interested), and found a local store selling Lensbaby Originals for about $110 US. Using a Lensbaby lends itself to what I think of as impressionist photography, full [...]

Train 34

I’ve taken the Moscow-Tallinn train any number of times. The scent of coal smoke, used to heat samovars for tea water on board, is indelibly printed on my brain as the scent of beckoning horizons. It’s an old Soviet train, built solid and ugly, but it stays warm and nowadays, they even usually keep it stocked [...]

The Amazon

Lillian is one of my favorite models. She has a wonderful vibrancy about her and that Estonian way of always smiling, even when I’m telling her to look fierce! I was thinking “Maenad” when I envisioned this shoot, and when she showed up suntanned and wild, straight from camping at a music festival. I just said “Perfect – don’t touch your hair!”. We opened a bottle of red to get in the Dionysian spirit,  let her drape the chiton as she liked,  and started shooting. The Amazon – Images by Kira Hagen

Ancient Priestess

Last month I did a shoot in Ankara with model Özge Can posing in a chiton, a dress common to women throughout the ancient Mediterranean, at the Roman Baths archaeological site. Özge is working on a master’s degree in environmental engineering and does modeling as a hobby, and we connected via Model Mayhem. I’ve been thinking about writing more about where the ideas for these shoots come from, so here goes: At the beginning of the2008 Summer Olympics, Greece hired some actresses to dress as ancient priestesses for the torch lighting ceremony. After I saw the photos, I wanted to [...]

The Antalya Archaeological Museum

One of the world’s best collections of ancient Roman sculpture is in the relatively small Antalya Archaeological Museum, on Turkey’s Southern coast. An ancient settlement itself, Antalya is within 90 minute’s drive of five ruined ancient cities, and the pick of the finds from them reside in the city’s museum.

Travel Research

I like to know as much as possible about places before I visit or move to them, and as I’ve been doing a lot of travel over the last few years I’ve worked some basic online research methods. Of course books are great and I love a good travel guide – Rough Guides are my favorite, generally – but most of the time I don’t have easy access to English language books.  Hence, most of my research is done online.

On Seeking the World’s Soul

The last trip got to me. Just a bit, nothing too bad, only traveling two weeks around Turkey, where I’ve now lived for 5 months. It left me exhausted, though, and I’ve spent the last three days since getting back to Samsun in the house, all burned out and anti-social. I always try to go… further. Deeper into a place, to grab its pain and love and history, to wrap it up around me and get it under my skin. How can you understand something without getting too close to it? Too close means the barriers fall, you get past [...]

Amissos

Amissos – Samsun, Turkey – Images by Kira Hagen The English Club visited Amissos on a cool November afternoon. The the wintry sunlight was fading fast, and slid golden over the twin tumuli atop the hill above the old harbor, slowly fading to twilight blues as it sank behind the coastal mountains. The air was cool, a faint breeze blowing in from the sea. Situated  to give panoramic views of the Westwards from Samsun, the city seemed, for once, tranquil in the Black Sea dusk. Amissos is the name of the ancient settlement which preceded modern Samsun. It was a [...]

Just moved to Samsun, Turkey

Long time since I posted anything on here. A wordpress upgrade broke the old “Options” theme I was using, and I’ve been fiddling with making the blog presentable again since then, on and off. Mosty off as I was spending a lot of time job seeking, then getting ready to move, and finally moving from Minneapolis to Samsun. Samsun is a small city on the Black Sea Coast of Turkey – friendly, middle class, full of observant Muslims, and a bit dull. I’m teaching English at a private girl’s school outside town, and my husband is doing the same at [...]