Gallery: searching for geometry in the Caucasus

In order to give meaning to the world, one has to feel oneself involved in what he frames. This attitude requires concentration, a discipline of mind, sensitivity, and a sense of geometry.
Henri Cartier-Bresson

If the great Cartier-Bresson, one of my photographer heroes, felt that a sense of geometry was essential, who am I to argue?! It’s not something I’m necessarily conscious when taking photos, but I do often spot interesting shapes later, which I try to bring out in my editing. And geometry is everywhere once we start to look for it!

Which brings me to Patti’s Lens Artists challenge for this week. She wants us to hunt for geometry ‘on the street, or in nature, or in unexpected places’. The aim is to identify images in which the geometric shapes are the main focus.

I seem to have covered this or similar topics so many times before (Abstract shapes and colours, Seeking geometry in architecture, Finding geometry in architecture, Abstract shapes and colours, and most recently Seeing triangles in black and white) that at first I wasn’t sure whether I would join in this week. But then I had the idea of seeing how many images of geometry I could find in my Caucasus shots, or at least in those that I’ve so far got around to sorting and editing. That means mostly those from Azerbaijan and Georgia, but a few from Armenia have made it into the mix.

Some of these may find their way into future posts about our travels in the region but for the most part I’ve tried to use shots from places I’m less likely to write about in depth.

My feature photo was taken in Baku’s old town and is a detail from the building known as the Monument to Lovers and Cats. I shared another detail from this building in my previous post about that city, Baku new and old. The two fake windows on the building were created by sculptor Tarverdi Guliyev in 1994 as an homage to the city’s cats and the locals’ care for them.