Critical contextualization of my work - inspiration talk - part 1

In the previous post I wrote about scope and how much I kicked against narrowing it down. That's how I came up the the subsection of Culture Crossroads' Admire Architecture section - Beyond the postcard. 

The whole idea of the mini project being to photograph some abandoned buildings around Sofia - since I have no time to go around the country this time - and compile them into a meaningful portfolio. So far, so good BUT (somehow, in anything I write, there is always that big 'but' thing) how do you do a coherent body of work on something you've never done consistently before?

Whenever I come across an abandoned place, I'm likely to photograph it. However, this has been only a by-product of my other work - say, I go somewhere to see the sights and I notice something crumbing around. So when my tutors told me I had to talk a bit more about the theoretical framework of my project, one part of me wanted to get out, run to the nearest corner or basement and then scream at the top of its lungs. Why? Because Bulgarian educational system has taught me to resent theory in all its forms. When you spent most of your life (from age 7 till now) memorizing which old scholar discovered which theory (now invalid but still in the textbook so you need to know it for the exam) and do nothing more than just memorize and memorize, at some point you discover that memorizing what is in the textbook will not make you compatible on the labour market and what you actually need is practice. 

As I mentioned in some previous post, I've learned photography by trial and error (I've read some books on composition and so on but it's one thing to read and gawk at whatever some other colleague has done and to do it yourself) so in this post I am NOT GOING TO TALK about theory. Mainly because the very word gives me a rash and an association with the 500-page Phonology textbook I had to memorize in the second year of English Philology at Sofia University (the book is quite meaningful, by the way BUT only if you are a phonetician already).

So in this post, I'll BE TALKING ABOUT INSPIRATION. Who, what, how and when inspired me to take on abandoned places as a subject. 

Bulgaria is full of abandoned places - from old Communist buildings to new hotels on the seaside, the crumbling things are all around. Bulgarians have the weird tendency to leave to rot things which other cultures would cherish, restore and profit from. But I never said we are smart, as a mentality. 

Here is the ideal example of how things should work but don't and my first encounter with the abandoned. 

This is the former Communist party headquarters at Buzludza peak, Bulgaria. The first time I saw 'the flying saucer' as the thing is known in Bulgaria, I was only 8 years old. At the time, I couldn't even conceptualize what this thing was. Years later, I came across some amazing images of the insides of the place, taken by a foreigner in winter: 

Source is unknown since 99% of Bulgarians tend to download an image from Google images and then state 'source: Internet'. So, the only thing I can quote here is the article (in Bulgarian only BUT full of other images of the place - some old and some new - to see the state of decay)
http://webstage.bg/izchezvashtata-balgariya/307-buzludzha-ruinite-na-srama-ili-arhitekturen-fenomen.html

These are the insides of the place - according to an architect, created on purpose to mock any symbol used in a Christian Eastern Orthodox church. So, when I took to photography, I decided to revisit the place. But about this a bit later. My point was that this place was my first-ever encounter with the abandoned. At the time I was just a child so I'm not sure if it actually counts but still, that's one of my first memories. 

Last year, I went to visit an exhibition - at the time, May 2016, I already thought of myself as a photographer, a professional at that, and had started to demand the respect and money for my time and services. This exhibition was my first encounter with quality photographs of abandoned places. Actually, it wasn't even my idea - a friend wanted to go so I went to do two things - take pictures of all the images for her to see and admire the pics and try to find out more about the photographer and his style. By that time I had a few pictures of abandoned places myself, but they were the exception, rather than the rule. 

I went to the exhibition and saw this image: 

Fig. 1
Copyright: Zdravko Yonchev

This is by far my favourite image of an abandoned place in Bulgaria (apart from Buzludza). When I saw this, my jaw dropped and I decided that my friend should definitely see this. So I took around 50 images of this one alone to make sure I got it right. This is an abandoned house in Sofia and this guy managed to sneak in. The orb is actually part of a chandelier.

That was my first formal encounter with images of abandoned buildings so I kept looking and many more came out as amazing: 

Fig. 2 The baths at Bankya - a small town near Sofia. Been abandoned for the past 50 or 60 years.
The copyright is the same as the previous one.

Fig. 3 Another amazing image from an iconic abandoned house in Sofia - the house with the strawberries (named after the decorative strawberries in the front yard).
Copyright is the same.

I went round and round the photos, took a photo of each one and even got to meet the author and talk about how to get in such places and what to bring etc. I was so fascinated by his works (again, his name is Zdravko Yonchev and here are his website and Facebook page) that I decided one day to try out some of these places and see if I can do something at all. If I would ever do something abandoned, I wanted my work to be as stunning as his. 

As much as I love Yonchev's work, I cannot do some of the things he does - mainly because I don't want to end up in the police station. Otherwise I still admire the 'air of serenity' and the whole emotion they create - as if the visitors have just left the room or - the opposite - that the place has been long neglected.

I am not a fan of style copying but I definitely adopted some of Yonhev's way of doing things - especially the use of excessive clarity to emphasize the details in the decaying buildings. Still, some of his style I don't approve of - because some images may look good after that kind of posr-processing while others simply do not. So I aim for a more moderate editing - closer to the real look of the place (because when you use the HDR the result catches the eye BUT it is obvious to all that the image had been heavily post-processed).

So, apart from the truly stunning work of Younchev, I needed something more .

References:

• Figure 1 – YONCHEV, Zdravko –  Green strawberries, 2015 Available at: https://www.facebook.com/ZdravkoYonchevPhotography/photos/a.682574571757186.1073741833.673989362615707/1086030978078208/?type=3&theater  [accessed 20 March 2018]
• Figure 2 – YONCHEV, Zdravko – untitled, 2015 Available at: https://www.facebook.com/ZdravkoYonchevPhotography/photos/a.682574571757186.1073741833.673989362615707/1085539638127342/?type=3&theater [accessed 20 March 2018]
• Figure 3 – YONCHEV, Zdravko – Bankya, 2015 Available at: https://www.facebook.com/ZdravkoYonchevPhotography/photos/a.1108451779169461.1073741870.673989362615707/1108451829169456/?type=3&theater [accessed 20 March 2018]