WIP development - finding an approach part 2: when some of the images you have are good but clash with the theme

Things became a bit easier when I decided that I will work on the old vs. new theme for my work in progress portfolio. However, this didn't mean I wouldn't take more images than I actually needed. 

Once in Bucharest, I used every possible minute to see something new and to photograph as much as I can. One of this walks took me to the museum of the Romanian village - amazing place and ethnographic museum. It is located at the outskirts of Bucharest and it is a museum in the open air. Houses from all regions of Romania were consistently moved to the place within a century and now the museum is like a small village with houses from all over Romania.

I managed to visit in the morning, before the crowds and the tourists came, and the weather was perfect. It was snowing and all houses were covered in a thick white blanket. I loved roaming around the empty 'streets' of the small village, peeking inside the houses and reading the information about each house. 

Some of the houses from the museum. When one roams around, it is hard to imagine that this place is in the center of a big city and it is not a real village. 

Some houses are more fantastic in terms of architecture, than others - I was especially impressed by the wood carvings on this one - looked like it had been taken out of a fantasy novel. 

I photographed all houses for the sake of Culture Crossroads and was delighted to find out that the village houses two churches - one Orthodox, the other Catholic. Since I had chosen to work on places of worship during the module, I took care to photograph all of them from all possible angles. I loved the idea of having these churches in my portfolio since they looked unique and interesting and at first adding them to the final selection seemed like a good idea. 

The Catholic cathedral in the museum. 

When I started editing the images, however, I noticed the same problem as with the serene image of Alexander Nevski (see previous post on approach). These churches were amazing, no doubt had a lot to tell BUT somehow clashed with the whole concept of my portfolio this module. 

Even though they technically WERE in Bucharest but they were village churches and they didn't look in contrast with their surroundings, like the rest of the crop. All other houses showed some contrast, told a story of changing times, absurd decisions or even threat of demolition. 

The Orthodox church in the museum.

These churches told the story of simple village life, of a time long gone and were useful for my project in terms of the architectural differences they displayed. However, in terms of having one and the same message these images didn't work well with the rest. They looked rural, whereas the rest showed urban environment. They looked out of place so I had to leave them out of the final cut - because the things they showed had nothing to do with the rest of the images.