WIP develoment - part 1 - roaming around Sofia

The first step in building my portfolio of places of worship for this module was to go around the streets of my phone town - Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. 

One of the main reasons I chose this as a location (apart from the obvious convenience and proximity) was the fact that Sofia boasts as one of the oldest cities in Europe, having history spanning across 3 millenia. Moreover, the place was occupied by more than one empire during that time and these left its religious imprint on it and all of these places of worship coexist withing a very enclosed space - we have Roman basilicas, medieval chirches, a 15th century mosque, a Catholic cathedral. a synagogue and an Orthodox cathedral all coexisting withing less than two square kilometers. To add more to the story, these are only the places of worship that are still in operation - there are a few others that have been turned into something else or have undergone some transformation over the years. 

The historical centre of Sofia is rich in architecture, as even the Orthodox churches differ in style. Each nation that passed though our land left its mark on the architecture. Byzantine-style basilicas and rotundas, Bulgarian medieval churches, then a Russian style cathedral that became the symbol of the town and most recently - a Catholic cathedral. All churches have stories to tell but the story does not end with Christian churches - the downtown houses a mosque and a synagogue less than a kilometer away from the Christian churches.

The place is known as 'the triangle of tolerance' because Bulgaria has very short history (if present at all) of religious hatred. On the contrary, no one would make a fuss of how you call God unless you get radical.

What is more, since Sofia has such a long history, these places coexist in a modern urban environment all piled on top of one another - the main underground station incorporates the remains of the palace of Constantine the Great (the one who declared Christianity an official religion in the Roman empire), the upper layer of the same place houses a 12th century church with unique frescoes and above that there is the Stalinist 'Triangle of Power' architectural complex that houses the Presidency. Council of Ministers and part of the Parliament. Around the whole thing circles one of the busiest boulevards in Sofia. Speaking of layers...

The buildings from the 'Triangle of Power complex' which were built directly on the remains of Roman Serdica and the palace of Konstantine the Great. It is a very dramatic story and I'll it in the information post about the WIP images

When I set out to create my portfolio for this module, I ventured on documenting religious buildings around Sofia. The reasons were two - the story above and that I want to spread it to the world, since very few people know it and the time and weather restrictions. Winter is not exactly the season to travel to the other end of the country by car so this sounded like a reasonable option. Besides, it is my home town so I have the opportunity to roam around as I please without being restricted by one-time visits or having to take weather into account.

So I started with the idea to capture both the different types of religious buildings AND the turbulent history that goes with most of them AND to try out a more artistic approach - looking for unseen angles or strange weather conditions... Quite a few things for a single portfolio, I admit, but I decided to go by my old technique "take as many images as you can and then compose a coherent portfolio of the lot".

This is one of my favourite images from the series at the triangle of Power complex. This little church survived by pure chance as it was saved by the wife of a party official from Moscow. The whole story about the - in the post about the WIP images because this church is definitely on my list

The same church but a few weeks later and a bit before dusk. As you can see, the view is not that stunning. at least to me. 

I noticed that some buildings look better at night while others are more stunning at daytime. For example, this church looks much more impressive at night than during the day, because of the lights. I made an effort to revisit the places and see the difference in appearance at different times of the day. My walks proved that different places look well at different times of the day.

During the first evening, I managed to create some interesting images - such as this one - of the rotunda that sits in the middle of the Presidency building which looked stunning at night (and a bit dull during the day) because of the light that put an emphasis on the architecture and angles of the church and not on the building in the background which looms large at daytime.

This image was my first choice - the contrast between the 13th century building and the Stalinist architecture around it and the Byzantine palace at the foreground, combined with the yellow light (it was so yellow, that I couldn't correct it) told some of the story of the place. 

Then, as I exited the place, it came to me that I can create another story - because this church is just in the middle of the Presidency building and the access to it is actually monitored. 

My first roam around the downtown proved to be fruitful since I chose the blue hour and most places are very nicely lit. However, not all of them were lit as I needed and it turned out that the blue hour is not long enough to cover all locations. So, on day one, I managed to get around only a few images that worked.

Even though the place looks stunning at night, it is not lit (that was a surprise to me since it is a very beautiful place and all other buildings around it were lit). 

It turned out that few of the places I aimed at were lit the way I needed them to be - for example, this Russian church stands at the center of Sofia and is one of the most beautiful buildings in town. However, it isn't lit at night so the only interesting angle I managed to find was a reflection in a nearby shop window. Otherwise, to me the place was not enticing enough at that point.  

The walk at night delivered some interesting shots but some places I wanted to capture were not suitable for night images so I needed to revisit. One of them was this - 200 years ago it used to be a mosque but now it serves as the National Archaeological Museum. It's story is also very tangled so I totally wanted it on my portfolio. However, I couldn't take any decent images of it at night because two street lamps sit on either side of the entrance and make night shots of the building at night impossible. 

The entrance during day time - I love the contrast between the architecture of a mosque, the inscription above the door that reads 'archaeological museum' and the Bulgarian flag on top.

I didn't have the opportunity to photograph the mosque that is still in operation because I went there during prayer time and it seemed inappropriate to me to take out the tripod so I will do this a bit later. Same goes for the synagogue and the cathedral in Sofia so I'll definitely need to put my portfolio in order and re-shoot at some locations.