Photographers have all sorts of fascinations. In terms of sheer volume, it is a well-known fact that photographs of cats are the most prevalent in the majority of non-stock photo sites out there. Hard to figure out why this is the case, but it appears that it has something to do with photographers wanting to test the sharpness of their lenses. Nevertheless, n all my years as a roaming photographer, I have yet to take a photo of a cat. Just don’t find the little critters that fascinating. But before anyone accuses me of verbal cruelty, I will put everyone’s mind at rest by saying that it is not the cats that are the issue here, it is me. I’m just not interested.

The simple reason for this less than fascination with such subjects is that I happen to find some other subjects more to my liking. In fact, I kind of lean to a fascination with some more inanimate object and the people around them. Of particular interest to me is an object that is found all around the world, but in vastly different shapes and forms, not to mention ever-changing settings. I’m referring to the somewhat insignificant table, or to be a bit more precise, to tables in coffee shops that for whatever reason, ooze character and charm. People talk about them all the time, but no matter how often I hear these tales, they still fascinate me as if I were there myself at the scene. Those small table by the window overlooking a river, tables on the sides of cobblestone streets, or corner tables in old-world coffee shops, they all intrigue me. As a photographer, I can’t get enough of these descriptive tales, or enough opportunities to look for them.

My fascination emanates from the notion that great things are created at those tables. At least I want to think so. In my mind, they are the places where emerging writers compose some of their most creative stories, places where lovers build or destroy their love stories, and were simple moments of meditative dreaming transport the likes of you and I into another world. In old-world coffee shops around the world, these glorious events take place accompanied by the sweet music of ceramic cups banging agains each other, by the steamy infusion of hot steam over the dark elixir which makes coffee shops so popular, and by the humming cacophony of voices emanating from a myriad of undistinguishable conversations. It is rhythmic noise masquerading sweet silence. A silence as succinct as a passing breeze, and one that can only be captured forever by a photograph.

Sadly, such scenes are becoming rarer and rarer these days in the developed world, and we must travel deeper to find them. More than ever, the romantic sounds of old-world coffee shops are being replaced by noiseless paper cups, loud rock music, patrons in workout clothes, and super-automatic coffeemakers generating industrial sounds reminiscent of small factory shops. The so-called ambiance that gave rise to the coffeeshop movements in the first place is gradually giving ground to something much different, and arguably a bit less attractive. Conflicting, and asynchronous sounds, seem to compete with one another, as if in an orchestra that is struggling to find the same tune, or is incapable to do so. Whatever the case, there is no denying that the photographers that so commonly found those unique scenes in such places, click a lot less these days. One scarcity has led to the other.

But while diminished, those table scenes have not disappeared entirely. The problem is that generally speaking, we must travel farther to find them, or at the very least, dig deeper to find them. These “mood” coffeeshop tables do appear to be a lot more prevalent in the old-world establishments, and these are a lot harder to find these days. Too much nostalgia or fantasy? Perhaps, but that feeling of walking into a place and finding the “perfect table” waiting for us, is one that most people can’t get enough of. Everything else is but a poor substitute, a deflating compromise that feels like a brute denial, even if it is not. We know the table, the one that would make the perfect photo, the one that everyone wants, and the one that should be waiting for us as the perfect backdrop for that classic photograph. My last experience with such a table occurred more than four thousand miles away, and I can’t wait to see it again.