About my little holiday

I finally found the time to write a little bit. I am back in Bucharest and i can never stop myself from wondering why ... Poland was beyond brilliant. I am not that fond of my series but people seemed to like it, asked questions and generally had a pretty great private view night. It was a lot of hard work but we pulled it off. The city is, as i said, pretty amazing as well, with the lovely Brama Jazz Cafe where i spent half of my days writing and doing various other cvasi-creative stuff. The prices were fairly low and the atmosphere was lovely.





Later on i jumped on the bus and headed for Berlin, where i crashed at Jessie's and Tommi's place for two nights (thanks guys) and had the most amazing time. Berlin is definitely one of the best cities i've ever visited and it would be nice to live there part time. Tommi and i spent a whole day cycling around the city and visiting all the tourist places while hunting a rare item (when the time will come, the item shall be revealed to the general public). All in all, it was a lovely holiday with small exceptions. I reflected a bit on or image in Europe and got to some 1930's Germany suggestions, but that's another post.

Poland: Part I

It's the relaxing morning after a long and hot day. Yesterday i've traveled from Romania to Germany by plane and from there to Poland, by car. The guys at the gallery knew i like off road cars so they arranged to have me picked up in a Grand Cherokee. That just made my day ...
Arriving there, i met Jerzy and we got to talking. Apparently i am to be showing in two galleries in this time, one of which, as i understood is actually a museum room of sorts. Well, that went well anyway.


As we were sitting down having a chat, we got to talking about accommodation and Jerzy said: "Oh, we got you a room in the castle". I thought he was kidding because he tends to make this kind of jokes. But he wasn't. I actually have a room in the castle. Granted, it's not the master bedroom but it's free, it's mine and it's overlooking a brilliant backyard with red brick and stone walls. Just to make things even better, the Castle is home to the Opera House as well. Something must go horribly wrong right about now because it's unnatural for everything to be so spot on.

Debriefing: The first exhibition of the series

So, the first big night was gone. It was quite interesting, to say the least. It had it's ups and downs but all in all it went fairly well. The downside of being me is that i'm never going to be happy with what i do and will get annoyed with pretty much anything that goes wrong. The first thing that made me smile is that we had tickets - literally tickets with the exhibition's name and everything (they were all sold out - i managed to save this one from under one of the seats, after the show ended):



I got pissed off at some things. It was nobody's fault really. It was an experimental evening, as it were, so things were bound to go wrong at some things. Anyways, we had excellent lighting (with small exceptions), and a great movie - everyone loved it.

My girlfriend performed brilliantly, as usual (on some accounts people began crying) so yes, it was very very good, music wise. It took me a while to calm down, as i was paying attention to every little derail that anyone made and i treated it as the end of the damn world. Dana on stage:



We got some good feedback - well, decent, not good. I need people to leave speechless so i have a long day to go. I do wish more people would have walked around to see the images from up close. That was really my biggest regret, that the kind of missed the whole point of the first-private-view-part of the event. Of course, i shall conclude with a small image that feeds my ego:

Life Begins

I am currently sitting on a tea house in Bucharest and loving every second of it. University is over and done with and this is where life begins. I'm quite contempt with the way things are going now. It's a rough period and i understand that it'll be difficult to get something going the way i want it but i am too proud to give up and too stubborn to admit that it may be impossible.

In this last week, i met some of the most amazing people, through my girlfriend. I met her canto teacher's boyfriend which just happened to love my Ambassadors and thought: "Let's shoot a movie on this!". When i told him i had plans to shoot myself shaving my head, he went ballistic and so the madness began. We met on and off and discussed lighting and setting up the space for the first show. FYI the images will be set up on the music stands they use in opera concerts so ... there's a win. So, we got to talking and that and set the dates for the shoot. My Defender is currently having an open heart surgery over the weekend so i had to get the Toyota. We shot for 40 hours in a 48 hour time frame and were only fueled by ... well ... momentum. Because as soon as things started slowing down, we fell like flies, dead tired.



Anyway, we shot a 90min experimental film which (fuck it, i am ruining the surprise for Monday - just a good heads up to those who read my blog) will be shown in sync with the classicl music. Each aria of the concerto had a frame thought up which pretty much rocks. It includes me almost falling out of a boat a few times, jumping out of trees, getting my head shaved half naked in a poppy field and many other insane ideas that our tired brains managed to duct tape together. The film will then be a full part of the show, and will be traveling around as a whole. Now all we have to do is sit tight and wait to become famous ... This is how things work, right?




Finance wise, student life is not yet over. I am broke beyond belief and am trying to figure out things ... University is gone and so is all the free equipment. This means investment as well as a great big hit in my already precariously balanced budget (strapping a ridiculously expensive camera to the side door of the Land Cruiser and driving around 60mph also put in a new light the idea of bankruptcy in case the camera fell off. No my bankruptcy however - but the faces of the people we overtook - worth every penny). But you need to spend money to make money and i suspect that this is the part where i have to spend ... That's it for now.

Exhibitions and other things.

We're flying home. No time for talks but on the short:

1) Might have concerts on the 7th (TBA), 11th (Slobozia) and 15th (Preoteasa) of April somehwere in the city and also out of it. Confirmation of dates and locations TBA (all in Romania, for now)

2) I shall be having solo project, The Ambassadors shown in the Luton Arts Festival sometime at the end of April - date for private view as well as length of exhibition TBA

3) We (Mr. Octavian Balea and myself) will be having a duo show (They Are Us) in Poland from 12th of June to the 31st of August, in the Fotart Gallery in Szczecin. Private view on the 12th of June around 18:00.

4) I shall be showing a solo project, The Ambassadors, in Balder Piha Gallery in Helsinki from 3rd of September all the way to 17th of September. I suspect that the Private View will be on the 3rd around 18:00 also.

5) Work to be featured in an interesting photography magazine - still working on the interview and the images - name and date of show TBA as well

Working oh three different series plus extra magazine and journalism work so not much time left for anything else. We are still working on a few more exhibitions for what has kind of apparently become a European Series of my final year project. Surprises and such coming soon (ha now i can say "The Ambassadors - coming to a city near you" I always wanted to say that because it sounds so global and i heard it in a Toys'R'Us commercial when i was 6 or 7)

I've also looked at starting the Bucharest Arts Festival 2011 but it's still at the initial stage. Project Competition and a blog/site is going to probably come up sometime not very soon but not quite never.

Until then, yeah, not much else. Just wishing the damn plane won't crash and that my work will keep being a project instead of a retrospective of what could've been a good photographer. Maybe. Not.

The Ambassadors

Here's a crop from my final series. Final images for the series, the story, the countries where my exhibition will travel to and the exact dates - coming soon.

Two generations

These are some of the test shots for my final work. The finals will be very different, however this run was quite important. These are, again, just tests.

Finally, stuff

The day has come when i put some creative stuff on here as well. Do refrain from publicly observing the fact that the pictures are overexposed and crooked. I have a fever, feel like i just swallowed a fistful of glass and my nose is running like the Amazon river. The images are for information purposes alone. This is the first series of prints made directly on canvas - closest to how the final work will look like. Maybe soon i'll have the energy to put better pictures on here, but for now (at a few people's request) here's the in-progress development









Apart from that, i also had the fortune of stumbling over a first edition "L'art Renaissance", printed 1945. A bit worn out at the edges, but otherwise in good condition. Will be given as a gift - but beforehand i took the liberty to try and read it (with some difficulties, considering that my French is ... well... fairly rusty)





Last but not least, this is my last night here. I shall see most of you in January. Best of luck (people working on their research papers will need it)

R.

Second batch of experiments

Here's the second batch of liquid emulsion experiments, exposed on Friday and left to dry until today. I shall try to manufacture a system of keeping them straight (since they get really wobbly after being dunked in water for about an hour and a half) and if i can't manage (which i probably won't) i shall start exposing on artist canvases. But for now, here's the tests

La Cellule de Crise - Paris Exhibition

our curator, exhausted, sleeps in the metro, on the way to La Generale en Manufacture.

How to talk in front of Members of the British Parliament - Sipson Reloaded

To begin with, i went to Sipson again and again, in the hope of understanding the situation trying to best picture it in my series for my Paris exhibition. After mailing Mrs Shilling, the NOTRAG press officer the previous day, rather late at night, i got a phone call from her early in the morning. And i mean Early. With capital "e". She presented the situation, just like in a mail, but was also disappointed about me not taking into a account the villages of Harlington and Harmondsworth, which were part of the Heathrow expansion plan - due to be either demolished or very affected by the noise, light and air pollution. I did manage to gather my strength to explain to her that i only heard of Sipson because everywhere it's the only one mentioned and finally we agreed on my need to research more and involve the other two villages in my project.

On this particular visit, i was supposed to meet with Mr. Jack Clark, oldest man in Sipson and probably in the region. Mr. Clark is 97 years old and has been living in Sipson longer than any of my parents have been on this planet, as have most of the inhabitants of the Sipson - Harmondsworth - Harlington area. Due to ridiculous tube delays (by ridiculous i mean one hour - give or take) and an accident between two women (kinda saw that coming there) in an intersection, my being in Sipson at 12 turned to arriving there pissed off and dreadfully late around 13:47 - in front of Mr. Clark's door. Missed the appointment. I did go to visit Joe, which is a friend of Steve's, who owns the car repair shop. We met last times and were talking about his Land Cruiser and he agreed to the picture.



Steve and his wife live just in front of Mrs. Davies' house and the Post Office.

I got to the butcher's as well, who was quite delighted about me taking his picture for the series and was quite cooperative. Like everyone in the villages, he's a friendly person, always happy and optimistic. "D'you want me to get one of my big cutting knives to take the picture with?". Not sure if he meant it or not, but by the time i was getting my head around it, he showed up with a huge cutting knife, point at which i got the hint that i shouldn't be hanging around there too long. I liked the place, and the bloke, but i'd rather not get on the wrong side of anyone holding one of these objects in either hands.



On with the show, i ended up photographing Linda McCutcheon, who is the secretary of the NOTRAG association. She was very helpful, showing me the house and everything and letting me choose my images carefully. it seemed quite nice of her to be so patient, and her image is perhaps a bit different than the rest of the series, simply because she was as well. She will be coming up later on in the story.



I obviously took Mrs. Shiling's advice and walked all the way to Harmondsworth. It was a fair 20 minute walk to the place and i didn't know anyone there. Felt like a deja-vu for when i first went to Sipson. These experiences keep me alive, and confused. I couldn't manage to find windows with protest banners and what not, because most of the village will still be standing but will be affected by the pollution issues. I managed to get to the pub, looking for a beer, where there was a lad in his twenties playing Fifa 2008 on the PS3. His name was Sam Dyllon and, together with his family, he owned The Five Bells pub, which was some hundred years old - but very very nice. One of the best ones i've seen yet. We started to chat and i son found out that i had gone into the safe side of Harmondsworth, which presented little interest for me, as far as the series goes.




In the evening i was invited to participate to a meeting of the associations against the runway (which i can tell you first hand have quite a lot of members) and John McDonnel, Member of the British Parliament. Somehow i understood there were to be more than one member, or there actually were and didn't speak, i can't figure it out. Perhaps it was just in my head.

Moving on now, the MP took the microphone and started to present the situation, in light of the recent announcement that the runway has been given kind of a green light but not quite. People took the stand and said what's on their minds, some of them presenting the situation while others just condemned the Government. I was surprised to see so many people at the Botwell Social Hall, in Hayes fighting for this cause, and i actually felt like there was something i can show through my series.

At some point into the discussion, a lady takes the microphone and starts talking: "I was contacted by someone who was a photographer today and is working in Paris, who only knew about Sipson...". The person that took the stand was Mrs Shilling, and the person being put in front of the firing squad, would be yours truly. I experienced a funny concoction of feelings, from being annoyed because my whole idea of trying to help has been neglected in the favor of this useless detail, which one trip to the village could obviously not have solved, to the most creative one - take the microphone yourself and explain. Somehow i couldn't process the fact that it might backfire.

So as Mr McDonnel was handing out the mic from one person to another, i suddely notice my left hand raising up, despite my better judgement which urged me to stay put and keep my trap shut. So when the MP sees me, he asks me to come in front of the room, present myself (which i obviously forgot to do) and state my claim.

"Very few of you know me. I am the person Mrs. Shilling was talking about so i consider it best to start with an apology for not knowing exactly how and what was going on..." I presented the idea and the series, and well i can tell you that being stared at by a few hundred people who don't really understand why you're talking at all, and the MP who seemed quite interested of what i have to say, was not a pleasing feeling. I felt like my 15 seconds of fame were going away, and people starting to check for their tomatoes, pitch forks and other useful items - the idea dawned on me. What idea? The idea, the grand finale, how i was going to get out of this mess: "V for Vendetta"

I remembered a quote that V said to Evey, which concluded my speech:

"I want in my series to make a social comment, portaying people and what they stand to loose of the runway is built, as well as try to send the message that PEOPLE SHOULD NOT BE AFRAID OF THEIR GOVERNMENTS BUT THAT GOVERNMENTS SHOULD ALWAYS BE AFRAID OF THEIR PEOPLE". This was the point where McDonnel smiled, the crowd applauded until i took my seat (which only happened once or twice more during the 30-40 people that spoke) and i was glad to have gotten out of the bloody mess that i got myself into by not staying put. Still, a lovely evening, epecially in light of the discussions we had after the meeting was over, as well as the promises for future help of NOTRAG on my side. It's a good will thing.

Leave you lot to your lives - cheers.

Strenght in Numbers

This is the village of Sipson. Some of you may have heard of the place. It's the little village to be torn down for the build of the third Heathrow runway. the plan includes the demolishing of more than 1000 homes, majority of which are inhabited by members of the comunity age 60+.

For Cherie's art festival in Paris, where i was invited to exhibit a series of my choice regarding crisis as life experience, i chose to follow up this subject. Perhaps in a little different way from the journalistic algorithm, i chose to portray people in their particular environments. Spaces and objects that they will lose when and if the runway is to be built. I'm not judging or taking sides, i'm just making a comment on how people are linked to their homes, of how an outside danger gathers the comunity together, of the lenghts that someone will go to protect his sanctuary and, at the end of the day, of what happens when people with will power stand up to their government.

The empty room experiment

Here's a less interesting image on the camera obscura subject. Now that the project is almost over, i can start actually doing my camera obscuras and doing them properly. Need to order some lenses and build a base for them and away we go. Will try to shoot the images on the Ds 2 as well, although previous shots at ISO 400 proved disastrous.

PS: and we're back to posting often, as the holidays have indeed passed.

Camera Obscura 2

And yes, the pleasure of exploring photographic medium has extended into the comfort of other people. Or more likely into the disturbance (not sure if it's an actual word but after 3 hours of sleep it looks like a word. if you don't like it go fuck yourself) of other people's personal...feelings. My first victim was my friend Denisa, who's room was transformed into a camera obscura as part of my project

It was wonderful. Not messy and full of duck tape like mine, but mornings without sun really messed her up. I take this opportunity to apologise to Denisa for wrecking her day and inducing a state of hibernation through lack of light.

And i need six more rooms. i am coming for YOU. Yeah you. Don't look behind and check if there's anyone. I will fill your windows with duck tape and use you for my project. Now go into a corner and shake like a chiuaua.

Last hundred meters

The website has been put up

http://www.thirdperson.co.cc/

It's only days until the private view of the exhibition, and the feeling that we still have at least two incompetents exhibiting is still present. Slightly worrying, as this is to be a positive event for everyone. For those of you who got involved: "good job". For those of you who didn't: "Fuck you".