Turkey
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Turkey A rural schooling By Aydan Cinar I saw how the complexities and sophistications of our modern lives constrained us when seen in contrast to the low-tec simplicity of the rural life playing out before me in a small village over the hills and behind the mountains. All the children at the school were close and important to each other because of the small and intimate nature of the school community and because of the fact that all age groups were schooled together in the same class room out of necessity.  One can see this intimacy clearly in the picture of the class warming themselves together in front of the small woodstove in their classroom. I was moved by the huge, dreamlike and limitless world of these children growing up in this rural idyll.  Small details such as sharing desks and picking flowers for their teacher were enjoyed by the children as was running around and lying flat on the ground under a huge sky. The children I photographed were being allowed to form and revel in their innocence.  My presence as a photographer was not important to them and went almost unnoticed; Of course ideal circumstances in which to gather images. I will never forget this shoot and I treasure my memories of it.