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Hamidreza Ghalehei

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Tbilisi, Georgia

Between Two Shifts

2023Georgia

The café is on a corner where two bus routes cross. It opens at half past five, which is early for a café and late for the people who arrive first.

Photographed across one week, always in the same ninety minutes.

The sequence

  1. 01The PlaceWhere are we?
  2. 02The PersonWho are we meeting?
  3. 03The EnvironmentHow does this person live or work?
  4. 04The ActionWhat are they doing?
  5. 05The DetailWhat reveals something important?
  6. 06The RelationshipHow do people interact?
  7. 07The Quiet MomentWhat happens between obvious moments?
  8. 08The Closing ImageWhat feeling should remain?

01The Place

A street corner before dawn, café windows the only light.

Temporary photograph · Kaique Rocha · Pexels License

The corner has been a café for longer than the building has had its current windows.

02The Person

A person seated at the first window table, coat still on.

Temporary photograph · RDNE Stock project · Pexels License

The first table by the window is taken before the lights at the back are switched on.

03The Environment

A small kitchen with two pots on a stove.

Temporary photograph · Zhengdong Hu · Pexels License

A shelf of glasses above a serving hatch.

Temporary photograph · Tahir Xəlfəquliyev · Pexels License

The kitchen runs on two pots and a schedule nobody has written down.

04The Action

Tea poured from a height into a glass.

Tea is poured from a height, twice. Neither pour is for show — it cools it enough to drink before the bus comes.

Temporary photograph · cottonbro studio · Pexels License

05The Detail

A folded newspaper open at a timetable page.

Temporary photograph · Tim Samuel · Pexels License

The newspaper is folded to the same page every morning: departures and delays.

06The Relationship

One person leaving a table as another arrives.

Temporary photograph · Thirdman · Pexels License

Two coats on the same chair back.

Temporary photograph · Ketut Subiyanto · Pexels License

Two people have shared this table for years, and do not sit down at the same time.

07The Quiet Moment

For about twenty minutes between the two shifts, the room has more chairs than people in it.

A room with more empty chairs than people.

Temporary photograph · Sóc Năng Động · Pexels License

08The Closing Image

Fogged café windows with the street busy outside.

Temporary photograph · Flint Huynh · Pexels License

By eight the windows have fogged, and the corner outside belongs to a different set of people.

Field notes

  • Photographed across one week. TODO(content): confirm the dates.
  • Everyone photographed inside was asked first, and told where the images might appear.
  • Edited for tone, colour and crop only. Nothing added, nothing removed.

If this is close to your project

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A short call is usually enough to work out whether a place, a schedule and a set of permissions can hold a story like this one.