FMP - final - angle changes and motivation

As I mentioned in the introduction, some of the angles are different from those in the original images. The reasons for that vary.  At some places, it was simply impossible to re-create the old image since there was real danger for me doing so. Even though, I tried and here is the result:

The original image was taken in 1910 when the road must have been relatively peaceful. However, now this is one of the busiest roads in the country. I took quite the risk standing in the middle of it - even at red lights - to take the re-photographed shot. When the lights changed to green, however, things were dangerous. Bulgarian drivers are not the most tolerant ones, I'd say. hence, this is closest I could get to the original (and I really loved the old image because of the tram). Unfortunately, the old angle used is to be in the middle of the street (which would be directly in the cars' way) so i could not do that. 

At other cases – like the monument of Vasil Levski shown in another section – I decided to shift the angle a bit to show something that is important to the culture of Bulgaria.

I shifted the angle to show Vasil Levski’s portrait in the background since this way the composition speaks volumes to the Bulgarian observer (who was my target audience for the exhibition). In this case I decided to shift the angle for the sake of recognition and for the sake of impact.

In other case (when I needed to photograph Saint Alexander Nevski cathedral), I decided not to cut the building in half to show its magnificence. The original image was taken in 1910 when the cathedral was under construction - it is one of the very few images of the place at that stage and I was fascinated by it so I totally wanted to include it in the project since it it unique. When I got on location, however, the scale of the original image did not fit what I saw. If I wanted to do an exact copy of the old image, I needed to cut out half of the church and I wanted to show the splendour of the place. Hence I changed the scale and showed the whole church in the final image to show how bit the church has got since then. 

Another case was when I needed to photograph the monument of Sofia – there, to capture the whole of it (it is a very tall one), I needed to change the scale (since the old monument of Lenin that used to be there was much smaller). Unfortunately, the scale change was necessary to show the new monument.

The case with the National Theater was different - it has not changed much though its surroundings have. The theater has not changed much, but its surroundings have - if I had to recreate the original shot, I needed to be in the middle of a cafe full of tourists and which blocks like 70% of the view. Hence I changed the angle to be able to shoot the actual image and not the cafe in front of it.

FMP - final - the exhibition - what happens

I don't know if it is just me, but when I do something, I always want it to be perfect and aim for the best possible outcome - no matter what the thing is. This exhibition, being the culmination of two years of hard work and a lot of nerves, travels and texts written, was not exception, of course. 

Hence, after I selected the venue, I immediately knew that I would need some really good promotion and a lot of loyal friends to have around to support me. Luckily, I found some support but as a perfectionist, not everything went according to plan. 

As the Murphy law goes, if anything can go wrong, it will definitely go wrong at the wort possible time. The opening date of the exhibition was May 1st (as both me and the venue owner, a friend of mine, deemed it as great to start at the first day of the month). Another motivation is that the date is a bank holiday in Bulgaria so there would be no excuses that someone has been held up at work. So I went for that as I was quite tight on the deadline for submission here. 

The Orthodox Easter (that took place just the previous week) also posed a problem since my prints were delayed due to that. Luckily the print shop, the courier firm and myself managed to pull it off just the morning before the opening. That posed another near-heart attack situation since I needed to hang images only 8 hours before the start. 

Hanging is always a problem in any exhibition - at least so my previous experience shows. When I needed to curate this exhibition (done by the Bulgarian UNESCO club I worked for at the time) hanging the images proved to be the most time-consuming activity of all. 

Hence, I didn't expect anything less and I was right - hanging the images round (without damaging the walls of the venue, as we had agreed) proved to be a test for my inventiveness. Luckily, things went out great and my exhibition harmonizes with the interior of the cafe. 

The video below shows the exhibition opening (and me, speaking to those who came) and the images as they are arranged for showcase. It is in Bulgarian only since it made no sense to make subtitles of the 5 phrases I actually said there. Throughout the evening, I was acting as the tour guide, explaining to people what was in front of them, giving instructions on how to scan the QR code, ect. 

From what I saw at the opening, the images do provoke some response and thinking in the guests. We'll see how things go since the opening of the cafe is scheduled for the third week of May when the media is expected to come, as well as many other guests. I will also be there since this will be sort of a second opening and another opportunity to stand in front of people and talk about my work. 

 

FMP - final - historical significance part 2

In the previous post I talked about the historical significance of the buildings I photographed and here is the second part of the story (the first one was too long so I decided to split the posts). 

The oldest university in Bulgaria, Sofia University, was founded in 1888. The founders were two brothers, Evlogi and Hristo Georgievi, who donated six million golden leva (which is a huge sum of money even today). The two had become rich from scratch and had a successful trading business with cotton and wool (legend has it that during the war in the US, the whole cotton produce of the South was bought by them and then re-sold in Europe). Another legend has it that the two grew rich through speculations but the popular story tells a different tale. 

Towards the end of their lives, the two wanted to leave something meaningful behind. Hence they decided that the most important thing for their homeland was education. Hence, they bought a plot of land and donated the money to the state. The idea was to create a university campus, following the example of the old universities in Europe, where the auditoriums and the students' quarters are in one and the same place. 

It took several decades for the building to be opened (and a lot of bureaucracy to be overcome) and by the time the state finally decided that it needs an "alma mater" most of the donated money were already gone. Hence, the building that was created was much smaller than the initial plans and there were no money for students' quarters either. 

Still, the Rectorate building (above) is an architectural masterpiece. In the 1930s (when the picture above is said to have been taken) - it was a relatively small building. Today, the Rectorate building of Sofia University is one of the biggest in Sofia - up till the 1970s it was built and rebuilt and now this one (called "the central building") is the smallest part of the complex. Each wing of the building is interconnected with the two only at ground floor level (all other floors can be accessed only though the wing itself) and the whole plan is very complicated (which gave the building its nickname among the students "Hogwards" because you can always find a new door on an unknown corridor here and there). 

Most people nowadays do not realise that the huge building in the centre of Sofia was once a tiny one (and that it exists not because of the state but of two people who thought of the future). 

The story of this place is one of the saddest in the crop. This is the palace of the Bulgarian Tsar as seen in the 1920s. Back then the place in front of the palace was a huge square where the crowds would gather to meet their sovereign. The palace was surrounded by a huge wall and gardens where the royal family would walk safely. 

That building in itself was an architectural masterpiece too. It was built in the place of the old Turkish municipal building by Viennese architects - I usually compare the gates of the palace in Sofia to the gate of Belvedere palace in Vienna because the two look so alike (to some extent). 

The sad story of the building starts with the death of the Bulgarian tsar Boris III in 1943. He left the country to his son, Simeon (then only 6 years old). A regency was set while the country was amidst the turmoil of WWII. The country was plunging in a civil war in the meantime and in 1944 the Communists took over the government. The three regents were shot and the widow of the tsar with her children was put under house arrest. There were plans to kill the royal family, the same way the Bolsheviks did with the Romanovs in Russia. What stopped the Communists from doing so was the public love for the tsaritsa and her children. Ioanna was known for her charity work and saw genuinely popular among the crowds. Her son (the infant tsar) was the country's favourite so the new regime wisely deduced that if they kill the royals, the country will plunge into another civil war. 

Hence, the tsaritsa was given practically a few hours to leave the country with only the clothes on her back. The exiled royals were forbidden to enter Bulgaria ever again and the palace was plundered. Everything that was worth anything was plundered and torn from the walls. The beautiful wall around the palace was demolished. There were plans to demolish the whole building too but as the revolution drive receded, there were way more pressing matters to deal with. So the building, or the shell of the building, survived. Now its sad bare walls house the national gallery. 

This bridge, Lions' bridge. also has a sad story to tell. 

This is one of the most iconic places in Sofia - mostly because of the 4 bronze lions that flank the bridge and guard the entrance to the downtown area. The 4 lions are there for a reason. In the 1800s (full story in another post) 4 book makers of Bulgarian dissent were accused of revolutionary activities (their true guilt being only that they were all men of authority within the Bulgarian community) and brutally killed in front of their families, then their dead bodies were hanged to rot in front of their shops. To commemorate them, the lions now stand at the bridge, so that they should never be forgotten. 

FRM - final - editing style

Apart from what the famous re-photographers had done, I knew from the very beginning that I would go for colour instead of black and white. The reasons were various - the main one being that I don't really work in black and white and cannot "see" things without the colours. 

Besides, if I put a black and white image of the place today, it would not contrast a lot with the vintage one. What I aimed at was contrast and I needed to show it in some way. That is why I aimed at couloured images - the photographers 100 years ago had worked with what they had at their disposal hence I would do so too. The popular way of shooting things is in colour so that would be one of the levels of contrast in the images. 

As for editing, I aimed for minimal editing in the images, to mimic the documentary style. People back then couldn't manipulate the images a lot so I decided that I would also not manipulate mine. 

As for the "double panes" (like the one below), here I incorporated some of  Rigaud’s approach. What he did was to put the old image of the place into the new one and create a blend between old and new. I didn't really want to copy paste his approach in my work but loved the way he showed change. So when I needed to do my final poster, I decided that I can show how the places I have photographed have remained the same and how their surroundings have changed - hence I created panes where the dividing line goes in the middle of the place in question and it is 50% in the past and 50% in the present, showing how much the place has changed. 

Luckily for me, the thing worked (I have never done something like this so it was quite the challenge to make the panes look the way I want them to). I left part of the monuments/buildings I rephotographed in the old image and then put the other half of the subject in the new one to create the most striking contrast - when the place has not changed and the surroundings are unrecognizable (see below - this one is maybe the most striking example).