#baghdad

Iranian airlines suspend services to #Azerbaijan #Baghdad #Georgia Muscat, and #Qatar after new U.S. sanctions target #Iran 's aviation sector.

https://en-wp.org/wiki/Economic_impact_of_the_2026_Iran_war
https://en-wp.org/wiki/United_States_sanctions_against_Iran

https://newsasfacts.com/news/161777

I bought a DVD player from this gentleman a few years ago. It was used, blue- the exact blue of the gate to his shop. It still works perfectly. A few days ago, I sat down and watched Twilight on it again, which feels like an unnecessarily long story for a second-hand DVD player, but somehow it has become part of mine.

A few shops before him is another gentleman who sells DVDs, illegally produced, though I have never been particularly troubled by the technicalities.

I buy them even when I have no particular desire to watch them, because by now he expects at least one DVD from me whenever I pass his shop.

And I always buy one.

Gladly.

Over the years, I have accumulated an entire shelf of them. Most remain unwatched, quietly waiting for a future version of me who will apparently have far more free time than I do now. But I like seeing them there. They remind me of the street, of these small shops, and of the people who have slowly become part of its landscape without ever intending to.

The gentleman with the DVDs has no idea how much I value that little ritual.

He smiles whenever he sees me approaching, already knowing that I will stop.

And perhaps he does not know that, sometimes, a person’s smile can become worth more than everything they have to sell.

His is.

#baghdad #iraq #streetphotography

There is a little corner of Al-Rasheed Street where two old friends have been keeping watch over the world for more than thirty years.

One repairs watches, the other repairs glasses- their real business has always been keeping the rest of us oriented.

Every time I walk down that street and step through their doors, I am greeted with the same enormous smiles and invitations for tea.

It hardly matters what kind of day I am having. The moment I see them, something in me softens and perhaps that is one of the reasons I keep returning.

You come looking for a book, an old watch, a pair of glasses, some forgotten object from another decade- and instead you find people.

People who have been here long enough to become part of the landscape. People whose faces you begin to associate with the place itself.

For me, these two gentlemen are part of the memory of this street. And whenever I see them, with their familiar smiles and their inevitable invitation for tea, Al-Rasheed feels a little more like home.

I apologize for the man behind minding his business with his sandwich. I couldn’t miss that shot.

#streetphotography #baghdad #iraq

This stylish gentleman asked me to take a picture of him with a peace sign.

How can I say no?

He also wanted to know what I thought of his fit, immediate 10/10!

My camera did something funny with the colors but I don’t mind the results.

#streetphotography #portraitphotography

#baghdad #iraq

Baghdadi men and cats.

These gentlemen men spend their days at Al-Mutanabi and Al-Rasheed Streets. These are the kind of men who can turn a simple conversation into an argument about politics, literature, history or whatever else Baghdad has given them to disagree about.

Here to honor their lives, their hobbies, their jobs, their intellect and their smiles.

#baghdad #iraq #streetphotography