FMP - final - the exhibition - change of printing plans the last possible moment

When I started taking pics for the exhibition, my initial idea was to go classic - have the images side by side (or one atop of another, as it later proved to be). And so I did, producing 14 panes like this one: 

That was a relatively OK approach but then I started making the exhibition poster. Then I realized that i need something that would wow people and that would make me proud that I have created it. Something that no one else has done. So I created this pic, thinking that it would serve as the exhibition poster. 

This image shows the biggest change in the urban landscape – it is the monument of a national hero and saint – Vasil Levski – and is located on the [place Levski was hanged 140 years ago. When the first image was created – in the 1910s – that place was almost outside of town. Nowadays this is one of the busiest urban areas and is deemed “downtown”. 

I loved the outcome, as it made people stop and think and created a few more of these. The total number of double panes, as I call them is 4 (since not all images were prone to looking like that or being collaged). 

In my double panes, I partially used Rigaud’s technique – creating a blend between old and new, as he did. Instead of blending the old image into the new one, I went for something a little different – dividing the image into old and new along a vertical axis thus showing the change in urban landscape (similar to the image above). I left the monuments unchanged, unlike what Rigaud did – hence half of the monument was left in the old image and the other half was in the new one. From what I saw at the opening, the “double” panes were along the most popular and photographed ones in the exhibition. 

 Some of the panes before the publication 

Problem was that I came up with this idea literally 5 days before the exhibition start and I managed to order the panes three days prior to start. The Orthodox Easter did not help either but in the end I managed to get the last panes on the opening day.

looking at the the exhibition now, I think it was a great idea that I did those panes since those were one of the most popular posts during the opening :)

WIP development - when the place is unrecogniseable

I have always been a fan of places that have changed a lot over time. You simply walk into the place and see that it has been quite different from what you see now. That was one of the drives behind my idea to do a re-photography project - to show how different places were a few decades (or in my case - a century) ago. 

Naturally, one of the first images that I selected for my FMP were the ones that are unrecognizeable - the ones that make you gape and say "wow". I love such images because they make people stop and think. So I started looking for images that made me stop and think. 

One of the first ones I selected saw this one - of Lavov most, now one of the busiest crossrads in Sofia. The pic is taken directly after the Liberation. 

Source: http://www.lostbulgaria.com/?p=2891

I tried to re-do the shot and it was a disaster (not because the shot does not work BUT because the place looks totally different and I cannot re-create the same angle. I love the old image and the totally different reality is shows and I wanted to juxtapose it to the modern landscape. 

The work I produced though, taught me two things -  that the first thing you need to look for in an image to rephotograph is the angle you use. If it is taken from a weird angle, chances are that you will not be able to recreate it. As it was in my case. 

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I was really eager to create that image since the place is really famous and the original image makes your jaw drop. However, once I went there it turned out that the angle I am looking for is not exactly possible since the photographer 140 years ago climbed atop a roof of a house nearby. A really clever technique, I must admit. However, nowadays the bride is surrounded by the police headquarters (I cannot get access to the roof or the insides in any way since it is a restricted building) and a brothel (I am not joking, it is a real brothel (and as you can quess I was not exactly keen on getting inside). 

This was one image but the other one that was totally inappropriate. The central railway station in Sofia that existed up till the 1970 when it was demolished to make way for the new, bigger one. My father remembers the old railway station and even today regrets that it got demolished.  

I really wanted to re-create the place since I was curious how the place looked like before that Communist nonsense was created ( I am being judgemental but there is not other way to name a ton of concrete and steel with no design whatsoever). And so I found a picture. The one below: 

Source - http://www.lostbulgaria.com/?p=76

This picture was taken in the 1930s when the railway station was relatively new. The place was built by Viennese architects and was really fashionable when it was created. And it looks really old and interesting. However, in the 1970s, during a weird drive for innovation and modernization of the totalitarian regime wanted to expand the lines and create 4 new ones (the old station was not designed for the new train traffic). They could have done a ton of things but instead what they did was to demolish the old building and build a new one - more "modern" and spacious. The new design (see below) was mostly inspired by the "Socialist realism" so the place to me looks totally grotesque:  

To me, everything about that place is ridiculous. The design, the "monument" which makes no sense and the passage that is littered with beggars and criminals. Most towns in Bulgaria have kept their old railway stations as a token of their long history. Not Sofia though. That new "thing" is much more like a joke. You can see for yourself. 

I can talk a lot about this place and how the architectural heritage was destroyed to build something politically appealing but otherwise total rubbish. The main problem here was that even though I wanted to raise awareness with this image, the place was unrecognizable and the angle could not be re-created. Unfortunately for me. To top it all, the railway station is at a very busy road so you cannot step back and just take a shot.

There were other locations like that that I simply could not use for this reason. After all, the point of re-photography is to have something that is in common. 

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. 

FMP - final - promotion of the exhibition

Promoting the exhibition was one of the crucial things I needed to do before I actually opened and my main medium for that were the social networks. I decided to spend 0 money on advertising whatsoever since if anyone wanted to come, they will surely find a way. Plus, even if I had the money for leaflets etc, this would not necessarily equal more visitors. 

Hence, I decided to rally friends and friends of friends via Facebook (easy enough a task since I have around 1400 followers on my photo page around that much friends on my personal profile). That, combined with the multiple shares of friends and colleagues led to a fairly good totally organic reach (see the screen grab below). 

The main target for the exhibition was the Bulgarian audience, particularly the residents of Sofia who would mainly be able to come. Hence, the event text is in Bulgarian only (I was counting to Facebook's "auto translate" function for foreign followers). The event is on the following link :) 

https://www.facebook.com/events/336460533917160/

As Facebook did not allow me to do a one month event (for some reason, the maximum duration is only 2 weeks), I will need to do a second event once those two weeks are over (or edit the current one, if possible).

I have prepared teaser images and two teaser videos for the exhibition as well. They are to be uploaded on my YouTube channel, Instagram accounts and multiple pages to attract more audience.  One of them (which launched with the sole purpose of attracting visitors) can be seen below: 

Throughout the month I will keep sharing some interesting things and teaser images in the hope of engaging more people.

For those who go to the exhibition, I prepared a website (it can be accessed from the event OR from the QR codes on each exhibition pane). Unlike the event, the site is in English only, aimed mainly at the foreign visitors who may not know what they are seeing. I am assuming that the Bulgarian audience is in the know what these landmarks are and has a vague idea of how this place has developed.

The website can be found here: 

https://bistrastoimenova.wixsite.com/sofia

FMP - final - selection of material and size - motivation

From the very beginning I knew I was going to have an exhibition for my FMP at Falmouth. What I also knew was that I would need to go on a very tight budget. Having an exhibition here is a big thing hence the prices are nowhere near affordable. 

I needed to go for something light and compact (because once the exhibition is over, I would need to store them somewhere and transport them). Hence, as much as I wanted to have my work printed A2 size, I didn't have the money and the storage space to do so. 

After a consultation with the cafe owner and a few measures, I found out that the biggest canvas I can have was A3 size at most (it was a small space and if I wanted 18 panes, I would need to go small to put them all on the wall). 

The cheapest option I could find (that looked well, I mean) was foam board - easy to transport, durable, light and good-looking. I went for the smaller option to be able to store the panes easily and to hang them around the walls better. Hence I went for that option.

FMP - final - venue

After the initial failure to connect to a gallery that would not let me showcase for only three days and at the same time would not cost an arm and a leg, I decided to change the strategy and aim for a cafe or a restaurant instead. Hence, I contacted my friends and acquaintances on Facebook, asking for assistance.

That is how I came across my venue, the newly opened-to-be restaurant of a friend of mine. She is an amazing cook, and entrepreneur and an amazing person I met while participating in a project 4 years ago. The project, aimed at connecting the education and business, put together a lot of young people passionate to instill change. Blazhka (my friend) was one of them. At the time she was just a young woman who had just completed her certification courses for a baker, full of amazing and tasty recipes and big dreams of owning her own restaurant one day.

Throughout the years, I had seen her progress and change - her ideas of cooking home-made baked goods turned into her quest for zero waste (and the founding of an NGO of her own) and a successful catering business -  Blagichka - zero waste. I was delighted that she finally reached the point to have a place of her own and that my exhibition would be the very first event hosted there. As an entrepreneur she aims at helping young people (artists mainly) to popularize their works and my work sounded just right for the opening since I had and exhibition to showcase and she had a couple of empty walls to fill in with something. 

The duration of the exhibition would be 1 month (no rent wanted and I was totally thrilled to be allowed this long) and the start date would be May 1st (even before the opening of the cafe) since we both liked to start the month with something new.

What is more, Blazhka agreed to do the catering, so I'll be having a real formal opening with some guests and wine. Can't wait for it to happen. 

FMP - WIP development - when the nailing actual angles are not as easy as you think

My main motivation in selecting the initial crop of old photographs to work with was the way the image looked in the old photograph rather than the way I intended to shoot it now. I simply wanted to make the viewer wonder and marvel at the picture and "scratch their head" as the Bulgarian expression goes. 

Hence, I selected images that made my jaw drop not thinking at all about how I was going to recreate them, having to shoot in the contemporary urban environment. And I was wrong. It turned out that nailing the exact same angle is not as easy as I thought it was. 

The university rectorate building (above) has always been among my top choice of images. One of the reasons behind that is that now this place is one of the biggest buildings in Sofia, with two huge winds full of auditoriums and a central building with twisting corridors and doors leading nowhere. I spent 8 years there (doing two BAs and one MA) and I have a certain soft spot for that place (the history of it, in another post). The students who study there call it Hogwards (by the name of the school Harry Potter went to) because there always seems to be a new corridor or a room that you haven't seen. You can easily get lost inside, even if you have a map. That neo-classicist style building is one of the urban "monsters" in modern Sofia. However, in the 1930s when the rectorate central building was first open to the public, it was way smaller (see above). 

I really wanted to show this change. The urban environment, however, took the upper hand. The university once stood in the middle of its own park complex. Nowadays it is just next to one of the busiest crossroads in Sofia. To make matters worse, there is a huge park (with threes that almost completely hide the building) on one side, and an underground passage to the homonymous underground station (just below the busy crossroads) on the other. 

It was this angle I wanted to re-photograph. The reality showed that to do that, I would need to hang off a railing above that underground passage (estimated height, at least 4 meters to the floor) to get the exact angle. Hence, I needed to give up the idea since I needed an assistant (to make sure I don't fall off, as I am afraid of heights). 

The other image I really wanted to photograph was the royal palace (the former royal palace, that is, now it houses the National gallery - why, in another post). Hence I selected the image below which shows how much the place has changed since that time. 

This is a rare glimpse of the royal palace building without the cheering crowds or the international delegations in front of it. It was taken in the beginning of the 20th century and was used as a postcard at the time. It shows the palace (built by Viennese architects) at its most spectacular - with the now non-existent front garden and the gates. I really wanted to contrast this with the modern view of the place but that is when urban environment interfered again. 

I have no idea how the photographer back then took the image. One is certain - it is taken from a viewpoint that is above human eye level. Maybe the photographer climbed atop any of the buildings that used to be around the palace but I cannot tell which one since after WWII most of them were demolished.

There is one building that stands roughly at the same spot, but unlucky for me - it is the council of ministers building that houses half of the government. Entrance is restricted and one can be allowed in only after lengthy procedure and quite a lot of bureaucracy. Besides, there is virtually no way they were going to let me take pics out of their windows (if I was let in at all) and doing an MA in photography would totally not count. 

Hence, I needed to abandon this exact image, as it was totally impossible to re-photograph it. 

Project information - twin YouTube channels

When I started studying at Falmouth, I already had a YouTube channel - this one: 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMW6zs91Ov6p6gp0ibKpW0g

My personal photo channel where I upload all my Culture Crossroads and educational videos - address on the link above

Hence when I had to upload my first video presentation I was not exactly willing to display it on the channel I posted my other videos. Somehow that academic idea did not go well with my idea to have another channel for the academic videos only. I guess it is a bit late to clarify this BUT the Culture Crossroads videos do NOT go to the Falmouth YouTube channel (where the WIP videos and the Oral presentation videos are uploaded). 

My academic YouTube channel is almost empty because of the twin channels. I wanted to have only the Falmouth stuff in there and not to have my subscribers listen to my lame presentations, honestly speaking. 

The academic channel is available on this link: 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk1JQ9oobLg74FWGO6hjajQ

The two channels have different cover pages too, to keep them looking separate: 

My academic YouTube channel with all the Falmouth videos. 

So, if you would like to see how is my project going and what kind of videos I post, the first channel (which actually has subscribers) is the one you're looking for. 

FMP - lecturing on my work - an account of Foto Forum Fest 2018

Teaching, they say, is a calling. A calling I don't have (tried teaching, don't have the nerves for it, frankly speaking). Lecturing, however, is quite another matter and I've always been willing to stand up in front of a crowd and have a chat. Love talking, that is. 

In June 2018 there was this opportunity to lecture the student photography club of Sofia University. Well, that failed (since very few people actually came) but I turned the presentation of the '12 myths about photography' into a wonderful 12-video series for my YouTube channel which worked really well. 

Here is a link to the full album with the videos. That was a wonderful series and at the time, when I wanted to lecture the students, I had a backup plan in case they are much more into photography than I thought. Hence I had another presentation entitled 'stories behind the lens - the field work in travel photography'. It was an amazing idea and I loved compiling the presentation BUT never really got to use it.

Until I got an email from the organisers of Foto Forum Fest that they needed lecturers. And I was delighted to participate. Photo Forum (or Foto Forum as it is spelled in English) is the biggest and most prestigious Bulgarian photography website. It is something similar to the guild of photographers (even though there is none in Bulgaria, yet) and being a member of the community is a sign of prestige. I've been with them ever since 2013 but only recently (in 2016, that is) started attending their meetings. 

Foto Forum Fest is the annual gathering of Bulgarian photographers. People come from all over the country to be part of this event - which is usually one week long always held at a different location each year. The organisers provide cheap accommodation and half-board as well as a photo studio with all the equipment one could wish for, a printing center to test the newest printers and two models to get creative. Apart from that, there are lectures and workshops for those who would like to learn from the best of the best. 

You can test cameras and lenses and have a chat with people in the field. The evenings are usually party time but overall it is an amazing experience and when asked if I would like to be a lecturer, I was totally into it.

My lecture was scheduled for noon, just before the lunch break and me being not one of the most famous photographers (alongside which I was to present) I thought that very few people would actually turn up. However, there were a lot of people willing to hear my funny stories - and how else would my stories be since I started talking about what you should and what you shouldn't do on location and what weird things had happened to me, as well as the story behind each shot I was showing.  

We had a lot of fun then - later people saying to the organisers that I had been funny and interesting (or so they told me).

Me lecturing - that image used to stand for that you take pictures till the end and never give up since you have no idea when the most amazing shot will appear. 

Judging from the faces of the people in that pic, I must have said something funny then...

 This lecture led me to another idea - to turn that presentation in another video series, this time about the things a travel photographer should and should not do on location. These, however, will be out in the summer since I need some time to compile them.

FMP - project development - narrowing down scope (when your initial project is too broad)

One of the easiest and hardest things to do at Falmouth, was to write that 'project proposal' that had to go with the application documents. At the time, I thought that 'projects' are for the famous photographers tom work on and didn't have a clue on how to create something on my own.

So I sat down and started thinking what I am good at and that is how I realised that I had been working on a project ever since 2015. That was the thing later to be named Culture Crossroads. It was an amazing idea and I started the MA full of enthusiasm that towards 2019 I would have a complete amazing travel photography project that would not only help me grow as a professional BUT also help spread the word of how amazing the Balkan peninsula is. 

Hence, in the first module I handed in a really diverse portfolio (and as the tutors said, totally lacking coherence) . I wanted to show everything immediately BUT that MA taught me otherwise. To create what was deemed 'coherent portfolio', I needed to focus on one aspect. The problem in the whole idea was that my project was meant to be diverse as the Balkans have more than one facet. So I went for the middle ground and decided that each module onwards, I will be focusing on one of the six categories of my project which I created to bring some order to the chaos of the whole thing. Here they are:

- Remember the Past – historical sites

- Experience the Present – food, street photography

- Be Part of Culture – holidays, customs and historical reenactments

- See Nature – landscapes

- Admire Architecture - architecture, obviously 

- Feel Religion - places of worship

Throughout the previous modules, I tried to focus on a particular aspect of my project, realizing that I cannot submit a coherent portfolio of only 20 images that would be able to cover all six categories. 

However, the end of the MA got closer and what I needed to do was write an FMP proposal. The main problem was that by that time I had already realised that the grand project I had in mind will be nowhere near completion. Traveling costs money, even traveling within the country for a day can cost a lot, depending on where you want to go and what you want to do. It also takes time an planning. I have had cases when I need to visit a place three times to get the shot I wanted. 

Popularisation of the project, especially if your budget goes from limited to non-existent and you need to do everything yourself can also be a problem, not to mention the incredible variety of places and things one would like to see, capture and write about. having talked to some colleagues about their ongoing projects taught me that the way I view mine is wrong. This is not a coursework or an MA thesis with a fixed deadline and length. On the contrary - it requires tremendous amount of time and effort to be completed (or even kept afloat - here I have in mind even something as simple as social media presence). Not to mention that I wanted to have videos, images and text and each of those three requires some time. 

So, at the start of the FMP module I was already aware that Culture Crossroads may have started as a project proposal for Falmouth but it would be years before it draws to completion (and meets the ambitious goals I had in the beginning - goals that I am stubborn enough to keep pursuing till I reach them). Unfortunately, I had to admit that my tutors were right - you cannot have a coherent portfolio, covering 6 or even 3 different aspects of the project and have only 20 images to stand for it. Things do not go that way. 

That much at least I understood for two years at Falmouth. If you want your images to tell a coherent story, they should have something in common - like the sentences in an essay. 

Hence, for my FMP, I decided to go local since Culture Crossroads proved to be a tremendous amount of work and time, which will not end after the end of the MA. 

Given the time of the year that comes around – winter – that meant I had to go really local and have 24/7 access to it. This is how I came with the project ‘Sofia - Between the Lions and the Eagles - echoes of a lost city’. More about it - in a follow-up post. 

FMP - research - the art of re-photography - part 2

As good as Levere and Maciejewski’s projects were in terms of scope and angling ect., they looked too traditional and something was missing for me. Maciejewski and Levere made me understand what re-photography is about and to get a glimpse of how it should be done – same angle and preferably same post-processing used – but I work in colour, not black and white and wanted to incorporate the coloured image into my work as well.

I started looking for a re-photographer that has chosen to break the canon and ditch the black and white for his/her modern images. I thought that the contrast in colours will lead to even starker contrast between the vintage image and the modern one. 

That was when I came across Vincent Zénon Rigaud’s work and was fascinated by it. He is a French photographer dedicated to re-photographing his native town of Reims through the ages. What I loved about his work (when I saw his website I was amazed by the editing idea) is that he not only re-photographs the place, he blends in the two images to create a new, stunning image, encompassing both old and new. (see fig.1 below)

Fig.1 - Vincent Zénon Rigaud – Reims. 2017 (cover of a book by Yann Harlaut)

I loved the approach since it was the first time I see something like that alongside the other re-photography projects, the one Rigaud did stood out. It was unique and not only showed two images side by side, it made a blend of two images, two historical periods and two traditions in one final image which made me stop and think. He definitely had a distinctive style of his own and I would have liked to do something similar. 

Very few people in Bulgaria, if any, are doing re-photography projects, at least none that I am aware of. While looking at the projects of Levere and Maciejewski I saw an idea but nothing that would make me stand out. Their projects are inclined towards documentary photography and I must admit, I am not that much into it to be able to produce something of value in this style.

Rigaud’s project was a different universe for me – artistic, interesting, and even eclectic to some extent. It combined old and new in one photograph (which would be much easier to display) and the final result showed both the stark changes (each of the images is manipulated in such a way so that the final blend shows the most of the changes that occurred in between the captures) and the artist’s view.

I liked his approach in terms of post-processing that I intend to use it in my own project (or adapt it, in case it does not work for the images I select). To me, Rigaud’s work is novel, artistic and documentary. What is more, he primarily works in colour and the style of his other images (non-related to this project) is similar to the style I employ when post-processing my images. I think I have found a way to stand out within the photographic community and the general public since no one has done something like that.

Later on, it dawned on me that even if I do something like Rigaud did, that would be a mere copycat. What was important to my work was that he worked in colour and that his contrasts are even better - working with colour. So I settled for the middle ground - neither monochrome only, as in the projects of Levere and Maciejewski - nor the blend of Rigaud. Most probably will have the two images on one canvas (the old one slightly smaller than the re-photographed - for resolution reasons). 

But that is yet to be arranged. 

FWP - research - the art of re-photography - part 1

As I mentioned in the previous post, I needed to find some practitioners who have done re-photography to see what the genre was like. To me the whole idea was a challenge since there is no one in Bulgaria who has done such a project. I looked globally (and googled 're-photography') to see who are some of the most famous in the field were. After all, if I am to learn, let it be by the best.

One of the first projects that I encountered was Douglas Levere's New York Changing[1] which portrayed the way New York (Manhattan in particular) has changed over the 20th century. The author started in the 1990s and used absolutely the same perspective as the one of the previous images. The images are displayed side by side, showing the differences (or lack of them, in some cases). At first, that seemed like a good approach to me. I was fascinated by the way Levere used the same perspective to show the stark changes. However, as I later discovered, that approach (see fig.1 below) turned out to be one of the most conventional ones and I was aiming for something more ‘artsy’, interesting and attracting attention. To conform with my Eastern European side, I needed something that appealed to me and despite the attention to angle and perspective Levere showed, I disliked the idea to show both images - the vintage and the modern - in monochrome. I have previously written about this but guess I need to repeat it here again - I am a fan of colour photography. Not that monochrome is a bad thing but rarely a picture looks better with the colours taken away. 

As in the image below, the emphasis is on forms, that is good, but I think the image lost from being converted to black and white. Lost the vigour of modernity, the colour of the current world. If I look at the two images, the one that looks better to me is the original image from 1936, because of the variety of forms of the skyscrapers and the interesting  line they form for the viewer. The eye is made to wonder to and from whereas in the second, re-photographer picture, the eye is  blocked by that tall building in the foreground. The thing being black and white automatically makes it less interesting to me compared to the previous one. 

Fig.1 Douglas Levere - From Pier 11, East River, between Old Slip and Wall Street. 1936/1998.

Even though I admired Levere for the meticulous angling and the whole project, something was missing in there for me as I wanted to have photographs that look no less 'beautiful' than their originals. I needed colour and life and most importantly - I needed doable angles. The image above showed to me that it is not enough to have a nice old picture with a stunning landscape if the same place looks like the pic on the right.

So I kept on searching. I thought that there must be someone who did do re-photography and managed to create stunning pieces. So far the ones Levere did were interesting but they didn't make me think 'wow, I want to do something like him'.

I came across Andrzej Maciejewski’s project After Notman while searching for other practitioners. He selected iconic locations in Canada, photographed by William Notman in the 19th century and aimed to re-photograph them reproducing the same light, colours and shades. The project turned out to be a huge success since it was awarded by a local cultural magazine[2].Maciejewski’s approach was also traditional – the images are displayed side by side and the processing is done in such a way that the two images visually resemble each other, as if they had been taken using the same method (see screen grab below). What I liked most and intend to use in my project, however, is the idea to select iconic locations and re-photograph them.

Since the archives are full of images of Sofia that show random places that have changed drastically, it would not make much sense. Maciejewski managed to show not only how the images changed BUT also to make both images look appealing. You see the city changing before you but unlike the images of Levere, here you admire both images. 

Fig.2 (left) William Notman & Son - St. Catherine Street Looking East from Stanley Street, Montreal, QC. 1915 (right)Andrzej Maciejewski - St. Catherine Street Looking East from Stanley Street, Montreal, QC. 2000

The iconic places, however, are a different story. They are recognizable and some have changed drastically. Hence, I compiled a list of the most famous locations around the downtown and intend to employ the idea used by Maciejewski’s and photograph only landmarks, not some random places simply because they have changed a lot. I chose to follow his lead of landmarks since these are the places people use to navigate around the city, the ones they take their children to and the ones that are usually the topic of public debate of someone tries to change them. 

An iconic place, a landmark, is usually something many people can relate to. It has a story that is told and retold and it is most probably photographed more than once so there is an abundance. 

Fig.3 (left) William Notman & Son - Maisonneuve Monument, Place d’Armes, Montreal, QC. 1896 (right)Andrzej Maciejewski - Maisonneuve Monument, Place d’Armes, Montreal, QC 1999

The image above displays exactly what I wanted to show - how something that was once imposing can be dwarfed by the surrounding landscape. Of course, we do not have skyscrapers in Sofia, but we have quite a few places that look like this. Some of the images I have selected resemble the one above of the monument. There is this one thing that is old, once surrounded by buildings that are from the same architectural style and then, 100 later, it is like the odd-one-out.

Loved Maciejewski's approach but still something was missing for me.

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[1] http://www.newyorkchanging.com/

[2] More about the award can be seen here: http://www.scopionetwork.com/pt-pt/node/159?language=en#1

FMP - thoughts on aestheticism and differences between the East and West

I have always had a passion for old photographs and stories from the past. Given the long history of Sofia, there were plenty of stories to tell, by both my older relatives and the national archives. I keep mentioning it, but when someone comes to Sofia and we meet, I love playing the tour guide -  mainly telling stories that tour guides simply miss out or even don't know. Some stories are popular legends, some are absolutely true and witnessed by members of my family. Point is, that each and every place in a city with more than 3000 years of history has a story to tell. Most of the time filled blood and betrayal. 

The National archives are full of images from the period of the Third Bulgarian kingdom (1878-1944) but as far as I know no one tried to do a re-photography project. Ever since I started this MA, I noticed that there is a stark difference in aestheticism from West to East. What photographers in the UK deem as a 'masterpiece' or a 'very good work' or even 'really beautiful' is often nowhere near what I would call interesting or good. In the West, as I have noticed, there is a passion for being 'true' to the original and to the unedited reality. That is amazing in documentary photography, really, but when it comes to what I really work with - travel photography - things do not work out that well. Mainly because the mentality of the people that perceive the image is different. 

In Bulgaria, and in most of the Eastern Europe as a whole, there is this concept of the image being 'beautiful'. It is highly subjective, of course, but there is this tendency in eastern Europe and Russia (need to mention it since there are a lot of amazing photographers there that generally set the overall tone) to shoot beautiful things in a beautiful way. There is no interest in showing the 'ugly' or unedited - life is ugly and unedited enough. People have perceived photography as something of an art for many years - the reason being that the Totalitarian regimes across Eastern Europe put a stress on being like the Vitruvian man of Leonardo - to be able to do everything, have interests and skills in various fields etc. In this environment of overpressure towards young people, the 'arts' such as music, photography and painting, were put on a pedestal. Each and every child had to have a talent and inevitably started taking tutoring in one of those - my mother went to music lessons, my father to photography classes after school. You simply needed to have a talent and photography had been regarded much more as an 'art' than just a mere means to capture what is going on around you. 

Hence, non-beautiful, documentary images (without any artistic value) are very hard to find since the overall way people think stops them from reaching popularity. Here is an example from today of a 'beautiful' still life from the Russian site www.35photo.ru - a very prestigious platform to showcase you work with a rigorous acceptance process. There are amazing photographers from all over the world there so the things one can see are stunning, especially the editor's selection. But still, there is a tone and a 'mood' in the site and images that fit in better than others. 

This image was in the 'new' category which means that it had been uploaded just a few minutes ago. From what I see on it, however, I can say that it will go high up in the ranks of the images for the day. Here is why: 

Source: https://35photo.pro/photo_3124329/#new#mainPhoto1467782

It is a beautiful still life arranged sort of in the style of the Dutch masters. Soft light, bright colours, something to please the eye. The idea to please the eye, no matter what you photograph, is so inherent in the Eastern European mind that documentary photography is hard to find. Mainly because it is 'dull', 'uninteresting' and 'ugly' - to be an artist, the Eastern European stereotype goes, you need to create something pleasing to the eye. If not, you risk being unpopular and your work going into oblivion. 

So, this is one of the reasons I guess i could not find a single colleague who does re-photography in Bulgaria. On the contrary - there are a myriad of people who shoot landscapes and food, a ton that do portraits and 'art' photography BUT not a single one to look back in time? Photograph abandoned buildings – yes, but no one has tried to capture one and the same place from the same angle as in some photograph taken some 100 years ago. Hence, I started looking globally and I found some stunning projects and artists. Whom I found, in a follow-up post. 

FMP - ‘Sofia - Between the Lions and the Eagles - echoes of a lost city’ - brief

‘Sofia - Between the Lions and the Eagles – echoes of a lost city’ will explore how famous historical landmarks within the downtown (symbolically marked with two bridges – one with statues of sitting lions, the others with eagles) have changed throughout the years. It would mainly focus on the social aspect of how the cultural-historical environment changes the inherited buildings and how the urban environment changes.

Sofia has a long history and throughout the past century, it has undergone many social, political and geographical changes. Whole districts appeared while other were demolished but some buildings somehow managed to stand the test of time. They exist today, squeezed in between modern shops and restaurants and they tell a different story – of a budding country that somehow managed to get out of the pit of poverty and slavery to be plunged into another pit of total control only sixty years later, within the lifespan of a generation.

That town is long-gone but I will try to trace and connect the bits and pieces of that lost world in my project to see if old Sofia still exists. To do that, I intend to work with local archive websites (and if necessary delve into the National Archives) to get access to imagery that pre-dates WWII since after 1945 the geography and architecture of Sofia was overtaken by Socialist Realism and Stalinist architecture.

I intend to focus on older buildings (created either in the interbellum period or before WWI) and select images that depict them. Then I will try to capture the place from the same angle and see how the environment around the place has changed.

The ultimate idea of the project will be to have it exhibited – old and new images of one and the same place side by side. The exhibition will have to take place in May next year. For convenience’s sake, the project will be confined only to the downtown where most of the historical buildings are located. Hence, I will not focus on building created after the 1950s since

the architectural style differs a lot and will try not to overdose the Totalitarian streak in the project.

At least, that was the idea I initially had when I needed to write my FMP proposal. However, things were not as easy as I thought since some of the modern landmarks did not exist before WWII while others existed but have not changed one bit. That is how I ended up with a various collection of landmarks on my list - buildings, monuments, bridges. Most of them have an interesting story to tell and all are now part of the mental map a citizen of Sofia uses to navigate around the town.

The interbellum condition did not completely match since some of these landmarks had been built even before WWI. The geographical restriction - that they all should be within Old Sofia (which is now the downtown) is matched. 

Some of the contrasts between now and then are stark, some mild. Most of them, however, show how a city changes though time. Sofia has seen a lot of changes since 1878 when the small then town was proclaimed the capital of Bulgaria, Back then, the position was chosen since it was roughly in the middle of the idealized version of Bulgaria, the area that was believed to cover all territories with people with Bulgarian descent.

Back then, Sofia didn't even have paved roads, at some places, it didn't even have houses to speak of  - see the pic below:

Source: http://www.lostbulgaria.com/index.php?cat=15&paged=5

In the XIX century, this was a meadow with a lone Ottoman gravestone (background, to the left of the person) which was wrongly called the 'Roman wall'. It was far away from the city center and at that time no one thought that the city would go that far to the mountain. 

Today, 140 years later, this is one of the most prestigious residential districts of Sofia, Lozenets. 

Source: http://www.lostbulgaria.com/index.php?cat=15&paged=5

This one is another very popular place now - today it is where the Architectural university is and the National Stadium. 140 years ago, it was way out of the city. 

I used these images just to show you the contrast between what Sofia used to be and what it is now. However, as much as I am interested in images that date back to the Liberation period around 1878(which reminds me that may be there is some need of a post explaining the history of Sofia) I am not able to properly use them for my re-photography project since they are dated too far back in time. The geography has changed too much for those 140 odd years so the shooting angles these people back then used are now impossible to mimic (even though I bravely tried with another pic which displays no less striking difference). 

I will be settling with more 'modern' images of Sofia - 'modern' being that the oldest of my pool are shot at the very end of the XIX century. 

FMP - WIP - image selection - part 3 - the initial selection (gallery)

For my project I needed a selection of images that are recognizable for the moder Bulgarian citizen and that are actually landmarks so that there is an interesting story behind the place (since the whole per-photography thing is actually part of the Culture Crossroads project hence the condition of the place having some story to tell was a must. I am usually the type of person who would go around town and show people around, telling those stories so to me these places bear not only the history of a country but also the history of my own family. 

This is a gallery of the images I initially selected (99% of which come from the Old Sofia project page, many thanks to them for being so helpful - but about that and copyright permission, in a separate post). Even though this is a gallery, I will say a few words about the significance of each place and why I chose this particular image (detailed information in the WIP post with all final results) 

The National Assembly and the Academy of Sciences

 This is one of the places around Sofia that has changed the least for the past 100+ years. What drew me to the pic was the old tram. What now goes on at that place is only cars and the occasional bus. Hence this is an invaluable piece of information. Plus, the angle is absolutely doable. 

The Russian Church, the Artist's cafe and the Military club

Another place that changed very little throughout the years, the only two differences now are that the Artists' cafe had been demolished in the 1970s and the place in the foreground is a huge park. That cafe was the place where the classicists of Bulgarian literature, music and painting used to gather. That was an old, grubby and dull building which posed a threat to the passers-by and was eventually destroyed. There us a wonderful garden at its place now.

The monument of Vasil Levski

 This place has not changed a lot but its surroundings have - this is the monument of the national hero Vasil Levski, one of the first to fight for national freedom and the first who came up with the idea of a centralized resistance system to undermine the Ottomans. In 1873 he was captured, tried and hanged near the place where this monument now stands. Then it was at the end of the city, now it is in its ideal center. The grave of Vasil Levski is said to be in the alter of another church in the center - Sain Petka Samardzhiiska. 

Saint Alexander Nevski cathedral

 Another place that has not changed much, but the surroundings have. Saint Alexander Nevski is one of the landmarks of Sofia and the biggest Christian Orthodox church on the Balkans. It was built in the 1910s and back then sparked a huge debate - mainly because of the patron saint who was actually a Russian warrior-tsar, not a Bulgarian saint. 

This is one of the images of the church I initially selected since I was not sure which angle would work out best. The place is huge and it is a but tricky to be captured in one picture. I had another one in mind but one has to be prepared. 

The monument of Lenin in opposite of the Triangle of Power complex (now there stands the monument of Saint Sofia)

 When I saw this, I literally burst out laughing - never knew that there had been a monument of Lenin in Sofia, let alone in the city center. Hence, since at that place now stands the monument of Saint Sofia, the patron saint of Sofia, decided to include it in the project - the difference is so stark, I can't even think of anything else in contrast to this. 

The monument of the Tsar-liberator (Alexander II of Russia) and the Sofia University rectorate building

 The Sofia University rectortate is one of the biggest buildings in Sofia, its construction ended somewhere around 1970s. Students there often joke it resembles Hogwards from the Harry Poter series. And indeed, this place has such a complicated plan that you need a map to navigate inside and there is always something new to find - like doors leading to nowhere, lecture halls with a fireplace etc. In the 1930s, the building, now a city landmark, had nothing to do with what can be seen today and that's one of the reasons I chose this image. The area around the monument has also changed - as it is now a public parking space. 

The monument of Vasil Levksi - another angle (just for the sake of being safe

 Lions' bridge (Lavov most)

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. 

Lions' bridge is one of the busiest crossroads in Sofia (there was a recent renovation and they made a round about and three crossroads one atop of another). The image (probably from the 1920s, have to check again) shows a busy crossroads too. But there are bulls instead of trams and cars and I would really like to capture the contrast of how the place has changed. 

The monument of the Tsar-liberator (Alexander II of Russia)

 The place has changed significantly throughout the years and even though the monument itself did not change much, the surrounding landscape did. 

Lions' bridge (another angle just to be sure things will work)

 Mariya Luisa boulevard

 Mariya Luisa boulevard is one of the busiest and oldest streets in Sofia, connecting several of the city landmarks. In the picture one can see the main store at the time (the 'hali') which still exists today, the tram line (still exists, just looks different) and the surrounding buildings (like the Baniya Bashi mosque to the right, still standing today). 

The boulevard was named after the tsar's sister, knaginiya Mariya Luisa, the lady must be around 85 now. Bulgaria is a bit weird because we are a parliamentary republic BUT we actually have a living tsar, His Royal Heighness tsar Simeon II. Point is that in 1944, when the Communists came to power, Simeon was a child, reigning through a council of regents (the prime minister and his two uncles). He, along with his mother, the dowager tsaritsa Ioanna, and his sister were forced to leave the country. And they did, but Simeon never really abdicated. So, when he came back to Bulgaria at the end of the 1990s and became a prime minister of Bulgaria, he held (and still holds) the Guinness record for the only monarch who has both ruled as a tsar and as a prime minister at the same time. 

Anyway, this boulevard is one of the few exceptions when a street is named after someone who is still alive. 

Sofia University rectorate building, 1930s

 Saint Alexander Nevski cathedral under construction, 1910

Eagles' bridge

The other exit of the city, on the road to Istanbul, is guarded not by lions but by eagles. As far as I know, the reason being that they too symbolize some dead heroes but need to check why exactly. This is a very old image - nowadays this place is flanked by high buildings. 

The royal palace of Bulgarian tsars

An architectural masterpiece built in the 1880s by Viennese architects, this is one of the most beautiful buildings in Sofia, despite the decades of efforts from the Communist government to have it demolished. It was once an amazing place to be, today - it has only blank walls and a stone fireplace no one managed to steal. It houses the national gallery now. 

The landscape around the building has changed significantly. 

The national theater 

One of the most beautiful buildings in Sofia and one of the landmarks ever since the 1880s. This place was once surrounded by buildings that matched its splendour. Now it is neighbouring the dark-looking building of the Ministry of Defence (have no idea what this thing to the left is, it no longer exists)

Mariya Luisa boulevard overlooking the Saint Nedekia church (Agia Kiriaki) - before the attack in it 

The monument of the fallen Russian soldiers (Ruski pametnik)

I have no exact idea why we have so many monuments of Russian soldiers in Sofia and will need to check which war does this monument have in mind. One is certain - this is one of the busiest crossroads in Sofia and was once the nightmare of any driver-to-be because of the complex traffic rules (the story went that if the examiner wants to fail you, they will put you though that crossroads). 

Ruski pametnik was once marking the edge of Sofia (it is in another direction from the Lions' and the Eagles' bridge). 

Saint George rotunda

It was built in the 4th century AD by the Romans on the remains of other archaeological remains (most of which were destoryed by the Comrades in the 1950s) and is practically one of the oldest churches in Bulgaria that is still in use. It has amazing frescoes and it is deemed one of the most important places of the Serdica Ecumenical Council. All in all, the fate of the Roman empire was determined behind its walls. 

The church has been used for many a thing over the years - both as religious and secular building. During the Ottoman rule, it even functioned as a mosque. 

This church was destined for demolition in the 1950s. The reason was simple - it was located in the middle of the Presidential complex. The Comrades wanted to destroy it so that the government officials can go to the hotel next door in style (by car, that is). Problem was that this church was just in the way. Moreover, they discovered the palace of Constantine the Great and decided to preserve at least the part that was inside the building. The church, however, was a different story since the new ideology regarded religion as something degrading. 

Here the church was saved by society - it is an example of different styles of iconography and you can see four centuries of frescoes and their development during the centuries along its walls. It is still quoted in art historians' textbooks and history books as a unique example.