ProgressivE-zine#2 "Meet me in Milan"

Editorial Team
Batsceba Hardy - chief editor
Fabio Balestra
Robert Bannister
Michael Kennedy
Contributions
Robert Bannister and Batsceba Hardy
Mark Guider
Alphan Yilmazmaden
Sagi Kortler
Michael Kennedy
Cover
Batsceba Hardy
Design
Massimo Giacci
Batsceba Hardy
All articles and illustrations contained in the magazine are subjected to copyright.
Any form of utilization beyond the narrow limits imposed by the law of copyright
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This applies particularly to reproduction, microfilming or the storage and processing in electronic system.
Enquires or material for publication are welcome.
We accept no responsability for unsolecited material.
- Adult Content -
© 2018

Index
3
The Hardy-Bannister Chronicles
On the Road with Mark Guider
On the street with Sagi Kortler
On the Bosphorus with Alphan
Yilmazmaden
(In)World-Stories
With 艾維思, Johny, Andreas Seiler,
Gabi Ben Avraham
4/13
14/23 24/35
36/45 46/47

The Hardy-Bannister
Chronicles
Introduction
Here, published for the first time, is the private record
of an on-going collaboration and friendship of two
distinct street photographers: Batsceba Hardy and
Robert Bannister. One is a reserved Italian, who can
read and write English - yet does not genuinely speak
the language. The other is from the United Kingdom,
a natural raconteur who has never met a stranger.
The common terra firma for Hardy and Bannister
is a shared passion for street photography, and this led
them to create Progressive-Street, a narrative project
that has quickly attracted top-flight talent on an
international scale.
Additionally, the Hardy-Bannister team has taken
their vision beyond the launch-point of a standard
Facebook page, and Progressive-Street is on the move
with a dazzling and substantial on-line site, featuring
articles, features and portfolios of both established
and up-and-coming photographers.
And yet Hardy and Bannister did not meet until
October, 2017. This is their story.
5

6

7
Part One - Scene #1
Hardy (in Milan): “I ran out of the house, I did not
want to be the first, and I did not want to be late.”
Bannister (in East Yorkshire): “New York, London,
Milan and Paris are the fashion capitals of the world.
Other cities try to join this trendy entourage, but it
would really be ruining a good cliché.
I decided to visit Milano, not only for it’s appreciation
of fashion, design and all things beautiful, but to meet
Batsceba Hardy for all of the above. Okay, and maybe
take a few photographs along the way. Milan is also
known for its high-end cafes, eateries and coffee. A
hub of tourists and every day laid-back folk. A street
photographers dream.
The morning arrived to make tracks for this beautiful
city. I had the timetable perfectly planned to arrive at
Manchester airport with an hour to chill. I was dropped
off at our local small town station, on what was a
typical cool, misty, typical dank British morning.
I had one airport-sized bag, carrying my two Fuji cam-
eras and apart from an extra shirt and few socks, what
I was wearing. A tatty Panama-type Akubra I bought
in Brisbane, finished off my touristy attire.
On the platform that morning, were all the commuters
and wage-slaves, still zombified, desperately trying to
become human again, drinking attractively worded
swamp water. Maybe coffee …
An announcement came over the speakers, “the train
to Manchester has been delayed by half an hour and
you will now have to change at Huddersfield.” Okay,
30-minutes to chill, I thought rather anxiously.
With my camera always in hand, I wiled away the time
snapping bemused commuters.
My intent was to document my travels to-and-from as
well; often you find these to be the best photographs.
I zipped through the Manchester airport like shit
through a goose. My half hour to chill had turned into
one minute before gates closed. My airport checks had
turned into a comedy film, in double quick fast for-
ward. A few beads of sweat plink plonked into my on-
board ordered coffee.
I arrived to a warm afternoon in Milan, straight from
plane to a waiting bus shuttle. This took me onto Mi-
lano Central. The central station was the first hubbub
of interesting transient characters. Indeed, I had to tell
myself to leave and get to my planned accommoda-
tion. Must be there by 8 p.m. Plenty of time, I thought.
Half an hour later than planned, I merged from the
metro stairs to the accommodation. It was then I dis-
covered why I had to be there by eight. The owner
commuted from the nearby mountains, and residents
would not be allowed entry after eight.
‘Fancula!’ being the first Italian expletive I learned.
I did find a dorm hostel for the night (ah, the fun of
travelling), but it turned out to be a bit of serendipity.
I met some lovely fellow travellers, a few of which I
photographed.

8
Robert Bannister
Batsceba Hardy

9
Scene #2
Hardy: “I arrived at the Colonial bar with my heart
beating ... and I found myself in front of him, so typi-
cally English and smiling: the famous Robert Bannis-
ter, the photographer with whom I had decided to
start the Progressive-Street adventure.”
Bannister: “The next day, I met the lovely Batsceba
Hardy in the Colonial Cafe.
Scene #3
Hardy: “A hug, a smile, a coffee, some embarrassed
looks, and the alchemy started.”
Bannister: “We exchanged pleasantries, sampled the
delicious coffee, and then set about exploring the city.
Always so much better under guidance, I have to say.
The city houses the painting of The last Supper by
Leonardo da Vinci, in the church of Santa Maria Delle
Grazie. It has the Duomo, one of the largest cathedrals
in the world. It has the largest opera house, The Teatro
alla Scala, so is most definitely a city to visit.”
When Napolean came to these lands, he declared it
the capital of the Kingdom of Italy.
And why not….
Scene #4
Hardy: “I had in front of me a photographer who was
not afraid to be seen: armed with a tripod, a bag for
the objectives and two Fuji bodies, one hanging from
the side like a revolver, but tightly closed with a pad-
lock.”
Bannister: “Of course Batsceba Hardy being a distin-
guished artist herself, it was lovely to compare styles.”
Part Two - Scene #1
Hardy: “We had taken a few steps, and Bannister
stopped suddenly, crouched on the ground, set up the
camera on the stand and he waited for someone in-
teresting to enter his field of vision.”
Bannister: “We used the metro, tram system, and sam-
pled the delights of the city. Of course being a tourist
destination, most people were content if you clicked
away, no matter how close you honed in.”
Scene #2
Hardy: “He had identified a billboard ...
From that moment I did not take long to realize that
we were two completely different photographers.
I am a solitary transparent soul and even if I go around
with a Nikon with a telephoto, people almost never
seem to notice me, on the contrary, Bannister is so
bold, in the midst of the flow of people.
And it was precisely this that made me decide that I
would spend those three days documenting a street
photographer at work.”
Bannister: “My style tended to be methodical and ob-
vious in a touristy manner. Batsceba, I called the
‘ghost’ due to her grace, and shooting from the hip.
Shooting with soul and capturing stories.
I learned a lot from watching a fellow artist, and I can
definitely recommend it. Of course when people rec-
ognize and appreciate your individual style, you are a
success.
Part Three - Scene #1
Hardy: “I showed Bannister the areas that I love most
of Milan, obviously not all, because three days would
not have been enough.
He shot and I shot him and sometimes his own subject,
obviously, I managed to do some autonomous shots.
I moved as if I were his shadow. Always invisible.
At the end of our experience, I concluded that Ban-
nister is a patient and scrupulous photographer. He
loves to observe people and give back everyday life
with an ironic and romantic look.
The language of friendship has been established be-
tween us, made up of looks, smiles, winks, holding
hands”
Bannister: “Milan has and continues to produce some
brilliant street photographers. Some worth a mention
being Diego Bardone and Eolo Perfido contemporary.
Mario de Biasi being more vintage.
There was a language barrier in speech, but none in
the face of art and beauty.
Sometime a look is all it takes.
One life, one street and a half a dozen coffees …
Batsceba Hardy did a personal sitting for me.
She hardly said a word, but her eyes just would not
shut up …
Her art, her beauty, her soul is just the same.

10
Robert
Bannister
Batsceba
Hardy

11

12

13
Robert Bannister
Batsceba Hardy

15
Mark Guider does not have to read Jack Kerouac’s
1957 classic, On The Road. While the 53-year-old
street photographer may not have experienced the
same peripatetic lifestyle of Kerouac’s protagonist, he
has made serious tracks around major cities of the
United States over the past four decades. And Guider’s
talent and craftsmanship with a camera is impressive.
Like most of us, Guider’s informal curriculum vitae re-
flects far more than one hat. Aside from being a street
photographer, Guider is also a husband, a father and
an elementary school teacher. In other words, he leads
a full life.
Based on his profession, Guider may now enjoy a
10-week summer respite. He currently lives in Los
Alamos, New Mexico - known for many things, but not
as a large city with a sidewalk culture teeming with
people. What’s an avid street photographer with a
well-deserved vacation going to do?
The answer: Road Trip.
“I’m off to San Francisco in about a week to spend
several days shooting there,” Guider said. “I can hit Al-
buquerque, Santa Fe, and Taos anytime of the year. But
summer is the time for bigger trips.”
Guider intends to also hit some remote towns and
natural wonders on his way back to the Land of En-
chantment - perhaps along California State Route 1,
better known as the stunning Pacific Coast Highway
that connects San Francisco with Los Angeles … with
Big Sur at nearly the half-way point. Regardless of
love for a specific genre of photography, a trip through
this part of California instantly evokes a sense of past
masters like Ansel Adams, Minor White, Imogene Cun-
ningham and Edward Weston - all lugging their 8x10
cameras through this beauty beyond words.
“I’m not a serious landscape photographer,”
Guider said, “but there is just too much potential in
the West for that genre to be ignored.”
Other places on Guider’s list for street photogra-
On The Road with Mark Guider
by Michael Kennedy
Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness
L
L Plaza Blanca

17
phy include Seattle, and a return to Vancouver where
he had good luck in the past.
“I don't know about Phoenix,” he said, “though
Mexico City keeps calling my name, also. Denver is an-
other possibility … for long weekends”.
It is a long way to Tipperary - yet an even longer
way from Los Alamos-to-Perkasie, just north of
Philadelphia where Guider came of age in the 1970s.
Currently, Guider lives in Los Alamos with his wife and
son, an intern at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Be-
fore the Manhattan Project made its famous imprint
on Los Alamos in 1942, the area really consisted of the
Los Alamos Ranch School, a very pricy boarding school
that counted among its alumni William S. Burroughs,
the notorious homosexual junkie who shot and killed
his common-law wife in Mexico City in 1951, during a
drunken game of William Tell that went wrong.
Burroughs missed the shot glass on top of his
wife’s head, and left Mexico in a hurry. He went on to
become a leading member of the Beat Generation
along with Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. Gore
Vidal is the other famous graduate of the Los Alamos
Ranch School. He went on to become a Renaissance
man of letters, and enjoyed a scandalous life in Amalfi,
on the coast above Naples. Following World War II, the
town of Los Alamos really began to flourish.
“You may have heard about us,” Guider said with
humor, “we are the couple who don't have PhD's or six
figure incomes.”
Who needs status and wealth when you have an
Olympus PEN-f for the street, and both a Contax G1
and a Canon EOS RT for film? As the Zen proverb goes:
Less is more.
The turning point that led Guider to become a
photographer occurred in the mid-1970s when he re-
ceived a Kodak 110 Instamatic camera for Christmas.
But what really opened his eyes to the possibilities of
photography is when his older brother Paul sent him
photos that he had taken in Europe while on a
Mediterranean tour with the U.S. Navy in 1978.
“They were street-like photos in black and white,”
Guider said, “and this definitely inspired me.”
Aside from his brother, Guider, was also affected
by the war photography that he saw in documentaries
Mark Guider

19
Mark Guider
and in books. The power of those photographs was
overwhelming for him.
“Today,“ Guider said, “I am influenced by many
different photographers, some well known and others
unknown. I must say though that I do not ‘study’ pho-
tography as some do. I’m just me, and I follow my own
path.”
Guider spent nearly 25-years raising a family with
his wife in Vermont - a state not exactly known for
large cities. Yet this was not discouraging - for his lo-
cation put him in serious contact with Montreal (less
than two hours away), Boston (four hours) and New
York City (about 6.5 hours away).
“This worked for me,” Guider said, “and I was able
to amass a large body of work.”
Yet the “Land of Enchantment,” called Guider’s
name … and he answered.
“The lack of sunshine and those brutal Vermont
winters,” Guider said, “provoked some serious Seasonal
Affective Disorder (SAD), and I didn’t want to become
a garden-variety drunk, or a worthless pillhead. It was
time to pick up sticks and get the hell out of Dodge.”
It’s embarrassing to admit how geographically
challenged Americans are in the Information Age,
when facts are a fingertip away on laptops, tablets and
cell phones. Yet many people are clueless about the
Mexican-American War of 1846-48, and how we stole
half that country in a bid to gain California under the
pretext of Manifest Destiny. Both New Mexico and Ari-
zona gained statehood in 1912.
“If you find yourself in the high desert,” Guider
said, “next to an ancient volcano at sunset, you will
begin to understand how New Mexico has come to be
called The Land of Enchantment. There’s no place like
it.”
According to Guider, the light in Santa Fe - the
oldest city in New Mexico, may be it’s most unique at-
tribute. The almost constant full sun can be challeng-
ing, but when it is reflected off the stuccoed adobe of
the buildings of Santa Fe’s old town, things happen
that are special.
“It is the sun that brought me here in the first
place almost four years ago,” Guider said. “I love New
Mexico. But now it’s time for be to be on the road.”

20
Mark Guider
Ship Rock (Tsé Bit’aʼí)

On the Bosphorus
with Alphan Yilmazmaden
25
Istanbul. My city. The city that is at the crossroads of
Europe and Asia. My city.
A city so rich in possibilities. A city so rich in his-
tory. Everything mingles here. The smell of food and
spices as tantalizing as anything the ancient Silk Road
offered.
My city. So rich in religious history: the ancient
Greek gods, the ancient Roman gods, Christianity,
Islam. All have helped shape and form this old Greek
colony, Byzantium into the heart of the Eastern Roman
Empire under Constantine … the great Constantinople
… and then 1453 when the once proud city fell to the
21-year-old Sultan Mehmet - Mehmet the Conqueror
… the Lord of Two Lands and the Lord of Two Seas.
My city. I walk these streets from where the Ot-
toman Empire arose to change the world for the next
400-years. Istanbul. The Blue Mosque. Istanbul. The
Grand Bazaar. The center of civilization at the cross-
roads of Europe and Asia.
There is no other city like Istanbul.
“

26
Alphan Yilmazmaden
And the people I encounter on these streets … these
streets of joy … these streets of sorrow … … the peo-
ple I encounter on the ferry that crisscrosses the
mighty Bosporus … each of us going between worlds
… the world of Europe …. the world of Asia … the
world of our public masks and the world of our pri-
vate dramas … with the refreshing wind off the
Bosporus and the dazzling light bathing our skin with
hope … with the harsh wind off the Bosporus and the
chilling rain reminding us of nature’s strength … this
cycle of life goes on endlessly from early morning to
late in the evening …. through the four seasons …
through the years … through the ages … same as it
ever was … my people in my city … where everything
… all sights and sounds of humanity mingle and the
possibilities for a life of meaning is everywhere.
My city. Istanbul.
”

34
Alphan Yilmazmaden
by Michael Kennedy
It’s no surprise that street photographers often have
wanderlust and wish to travel to other continents. Yet
if you are Alphan Yilmazmaden, you can go between
two continents in a matter of minutes - because Is-
tanbul is home. This bustling, cosmopolitan city - one
of the world’s oldest, bestrides both Europe and Asia,
separated only by the narrow Bosphorus Strait.
The 56-year-old Yilmazmaden is a retired engi-
neer who first became interested in photography six
years ago. He has no formal background in the
medium, yet has attended numerous workshops since
2012. In turn, this has led to membership in the
TurkuazStreet Collective and BULB (Bucharest Urban
League of photographers for the Balkans).
Despite tapping into photography somewhat re-
cently, Yilmazmaden has been drawn to cameras since
Alphan Yilmazmaden, street photographer

35
Alphan Yilmazmaden
a very early age. His uncle had “one of those black
magic boxes,” which fascinated him. Yet he was not
able to spend enough time with a camera until he re-
tired in 2012.
Now Yilmazmaden is making up for lost time as a
street photographer in Istanbul. Like countless other
photographers, whether professional or amateur, Yil-
mazmaden has been influenced by past masters like
André Kertész, Brassai, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Ernst
Haas, Saul Leiter, and Ara Güler.
These days, Yilmazmaden is a bit of a X-fan, which
is to say the House of Fujifilm and the innumerable X
cameras that appeal to so many photographers. In Yil-
mazmaden’s case, he works with a fixed lens X-T70.
Ferryboats carry passengers between the two sides
of Istanbul every day, and Yilmazmaden loves to doc-
ument these people with his camera making a record
of their love and passions, their sadness and hopes. The
need to tell the story of the human journey is univer-
sal - regardless of location.
The historical journey from Byzantium, originally
a Greek colony in 657 BC, to modern-day Istanbul has
been a long and colorful one. Byzantium eventually
fell to the Romans in 193 AD, and later became the
capital of the Roman Empire in 330 - renamed Con-
stantinople in honor of Emperor Constantine, who
promoted tolerance of Christianity throughout the
Roman Empire.
In 1453, the Ottoman Turks finally put the Roman
Empire to rest - known better for nearly a thousand
years as the Byzantium Empire, and Constantinople
gradually gave way to the name Istanbul.
Yilmazmaden’s city has always been at the cross-
roads of culture and history, empires and religion, war
and peace.
Now, because we are firmly in the Information
Age and cannot deny being part of a global society,
street photographer Daido Moriyama of Tokyo is also
shaking up things in Istanbul - not just in the Orient.
For Yilmazmaden, Istanbul is a magical place, where
he feels in a photographic heaven.

On the street with Sagi Kortler
by Michael Kennedy
37
Tel Aviv photographer Sagi Kortler likes to get to the
essentials. And one subject is his passion for street
photography. Kortler’s been drawn to art since child-
hood, and painted and sketched during his youth.
“Photography is something that I wanted to do for
many years,” Kortler said, “yet didn't until one day it
just felt like the right time.”
This happened a decade ago, and the 45-year-old Ko-
rtler hasn’t looked back.
“Photography is a genuine passion more than any-
thing,” Kortler said. “I don't make a living from pho-
tography - but it is such a big part of my life that it’s
more than just a hobby.”
Kortler grew up in Netanya, a city along the cost line
of the Mediterranean Sea, about 30km north of Tel-
Aviv. And after living in different cities, for the past
eight years he has come full circle and resides in Ne-
tanya - though most of his photography occurs in Tel
Aviv. When Kortler started to shape his street style, he
looked to past masters who have influenced countless
photographers, and this includes heavyweights Henri
Cartier-Bresson, Josef Koudelka, William Klein and
Robert Frank.
“Today,” Kortler said, “I'm mostly influenced by great
color photographers like Alex Webb, David Alan Har-
vey, Constantine Manos and Harry Gruyaert.”

39
Kortler admits that he doesn’t own many photogra-
phy books - and what’s part of his collection has not
influenced him significantly.
“Now music,” Kortler said, “that’s different. Many times
lines from songs influence me as I react to scenes on
the street.”
When Kortler is on the cosmopolitan streets of Tel Aviv,
he tries to avoid interacting with his potential subjects
as much as possible and maintaining a “fly on the
wall,” approach.
“I look for surreal images,” Kortler said, “I like to take
things out of context, so the setting of the image is
not really important. I guess that local history and pol-
itics have little influence on my work.”
Most every street photographer is drawn to a large
urban setting for the endless possibilities of people in
candid moments.
For Kortler, Tel Aviv is not simply close to his home in
Netanya, the city is vibrant because of the diversity of
people from all over the world.
“Some people may have misconceptions about Tel Aviv
Sagi Kortler
because it’s in the Middle East - and Israel specifically,”
Kortler said. “Yet Tel Aviv is as safe as any modern
Western city, if not more. Crazy people do crazy things
all over the world.”
According to Kortler, part of the allure of Tel Aviv for
street photography is because the state of Israel is still
fairly young and reflects a wide diversity of cultures,
religions, economic statuses, and sexual preferences.
“All these people mix,” Kortler said, “so the city is a
giant melting pot - and some spots that are great for
street photography are places where the mix is more
evident.”
When Kortler takes the “fly on the wall,” approach to
street photography, he tries not to be noticed in order
to maintain the authenticity of candid activity by his
subjects.
“Today people are more aware of cameras,” Kortler
said, “so you have to feel the vibe of the area and how
safe it is to raise the camera and shoot. In general, Tel
Aviv is an easy place to do street photography in terms
of dealing with people.”

- Stories
Andreas Seiler
Gabi Ben Avraham

in this issue
Mark Guider
If it’s summer, Guider, the 53-year-old street photographer, is
on the road with his camera. This year is no exception and he is
bound for San Francisco on a journey into this part of America.
Alphan Yilmazmaden
is Our Man in Istanbul. This retired engineer knows the streets of
Istanbul well - yet to know this city, which straddles both Asia
and Europe, one must truly know the Bosporus … the small sea
that separates the two continents, and the two sides of Istanbul.
Progressive Gang : Batsceba Hardy, Robert Bannister, Niklas Lindskog, Lukasz Palka, Jinn Jyh Leow, Michael Kennedy, Fabio Maddogz Balestra,
Stefania Lazzari, Orlando Durazzo, Davide Dalla Giustina, Patrick Monnier, Gerri McLaughlin, Alexander Merc, Peppe Di Donato, Mark Guider, Karlo
Flores, Siddhartha Mukherjee, Alphan Yilmazmaden, Marion Junkersdorf, Inés Madrazo Delgado, Kevin Lim
Sai Kortler
Israeli photographer Sagi Kortler lives slightly north of Tel Aviv,
that cosmopolitan city on the eastern edge of the Mediterranean
Sea. This is where he goes to mix with one of the most diverse po-
pulations in the Middle East, if not the world.
Robert Bannister & Batsceba Hardy
are the co-founder of both the Progressive-Street Facebook
page and the official website. Bannister, from Yorkshire, a self-
styled ironic and Romantic street photographer. Hardy is a bit of
a Renaissance woman for all the hats she wears through out the
course of a day. She is a wife, mother, writer, photographer, pu-
blisher, and chief organizer for some genuinely talented people.

ProgressivE-zine#2 "Meet me in Milan"

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