"Voaleta"

One of the curiosities of the Lipscani street (historic core) in

Bucharest, Romania. It is a high (4 storeys) and very narrow building.

 

In this photo freshly after renovation (not inhabited yet again).

Very interesting spaces. I think it would make a nice art gallery

Hi Manolis,

 

thanks for the comment.

 

This is one of the first pictures uploaded since the new rule (not so small size), and at the begin I've got 5 pictures quota + those submitted for critique (4/week). After having 9, I was going to delete this one, as it had no comment ... when I saw that the quota was raised (based on participation, popularity, etc) to 25 :) ! Since then it is shaky, it is 20-25, but anyway, I still have place.

 

And my contract has finally arrived, so if signatures, visa etc work in time, I'll start working in Italy by the 15th of June, and subscribe :)

 

I didn't think of something so ambitious - rather a travel guide on Bucharest. Photos of buildings in Romania are not allowed for commercial purposes, but you are right, if the accent is on the 'space' and not on the 'image of the building' it is different :)

 

Actually the daughter of some neighbours of my mother works as professional architectural photographer, and she had exhibitions on Bucharest, but she took the frontier between the "old city" and the new Ceausescu buildings, replacing those demolished. On the other hand, indeed, a Romanian architect has two books: one dealing with that, and one dealing with this Lipscani area. He has B&W photos and aquarels.

 

Since I graduated in architecture, I can also draw - I'll look if I find a digital version of my best line drawing of a building in Bucharest, post it tomorrow as a comment to the respective photo, and let you know :)

 

When I was 1995 in Regensburg, Germany, with a co-operation project (was still in Romania by then), I met a photograph who was printing on paper, B&W, slides, and got thus interesting negatives. Recalling that, some years ago, I took my old B&W films made in Romania (I used to do them as site study for projects; now I have 3 LEITZ ordner full with pages with slides - about 30 films, but the least are scanned) and framed like slides. A colleague here said it would give a good picture book (they are relatively old now 1992-1995, so Bucharest 10 years ago; a lot has changed) - I laughed about the idea. But you know the proverb, if 3 say you are drunk, it is better you go to bed. Worth thinking about.

 

Indeed I have noticed that at the architecture congress in Berlin my photos of interwar Romanian buildings was accepted (1 out of 3 were), cos they were simply contemporary, and most publications take the interwar photos from archives for this, for whatever reason. On the other hand, on that and with contemporary photos there was already an exhibit, which wandered in more countries: two architecture students from Munich, a Romanian and a Brasilian, and a photographer from Luxembourg, all about my age; I bought the catalogue. B&W medium size camera photos.

 

I also enjoyed the park - I wandered in spring and saw that so much is designed after the rules of landscape planning, much more than in the castle garden (forest) in Karlsruhe, which is quite wilde.

 

Thanks again, also for the occasion to write this comment, for the idea, and for giving me trust!

 

Maria

Maria, thank you for your answer. I see you have very interesting projects. It is great that you will be working in Italy. This country is the paradise for both, architects and photographers; for everybody really. I am touched with your attitude towards your country of origin. With Romania joining the EU in 2007, things will become easier for you, your projects and for the country.

 

The attached photo was taken, if I remember well, in Bucurest when you were 1 year old. You may find a manipulated version called A house and a tree .

Hi Manolis,

 

thank you for your comment and image. I will come back to high rise in Romania later (when more time). I was also 1 year old in 1975!

 

here it is: the photo and the drawing (in the comments).

 

best regards

Maria

 

PS: my quota raised to 29 :) ;)

Maria, you were 1 year old in '75. I was 22 when I took this photo :-)

Hi Manolis,

 

at this comment it took really long to reply - I hope you are still following up your comments on it.

 

This photo I took when I was almost 22 (21 exactly). It is in central Bucharest, to the East of the main N-S Boulevard and to the North of the main E-W Boulevard [the historic centre is to the West and respectivelly South of those]. I have put some content in the comments also (including some more scanned negatives from the same time +/- 3 years, and link to even more of them in a thread somebody had the idea of).

 

Your photo was taken in Northern Bucharest, right?

 

warm regards

Maria

 

PS: now I really filled my quota - get to participate more ;)

It is very moving to see old negatives from unknown places, in the brut way you present them. I think it is also worthy working on them one by one. All old photographs have an intrinsic interest, and, in my opinion, a lot more than most of the technically perfect digital nonsens we see in the PN. Try to increase your quota, Maria, and quickly. Best regards.

Hi Manolis,

 

thank you so much for again a very moving comment as well!

 

I am afraid I missed the part on "unknown places", when writting the reply. Because 10 years I don't find particularly old. I came to Germany in 1996, there will be 10 years next year, and I have tons of photos with it, 3 films with Karlsruhe only. Most of them are embeded in a referat on photography I made for the visual communication class, I have it online [the left frame does not work; ICQ shut the homepages service down, but just the right and the middle are the referat], but there are also some older from Romania; it is in Romanian. Always middle frame are photos. After no. 8 and no. 30 I made aquarels and made gifts to friends. The quality of scans is like from 1999, when I scanned them grrrrrrr. Back in 1996 I still used to read books on how to make photography - I borrowed them from the british council.

For better scan quality, here: Frankfurt, almost 10 years ago.

 

So, when I read your comments, I thought: why is Karlsruhe 10 years ago less interesting than Bucharest 10 years ago. My mother sais, Bucharest is more interesting because the photographies are B&W. I have Karlsruhe, Munich, Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Nierstein near the Rhine, I think also Freiburg and Stuttgart 9 years ago - we were a group of 6 people and took advantage of the 5 person ticket of that time - in colour negative. Later on I turned to slides, cos I read that for publishing only slides are accepted - I was living far from reality, that is. Not to talk that I was with a one-week exchange in 1994 in Regensburg, Germany, and that time I had a B&W film - also a slide film, but the later, used with Zenith near the Danube, got overexposed (too dark), so I could only use the slides to project on the wall and make line hand-drawn sketches ... The most part of this photos, and Regensburg totally, I left in Romania, I'm afraid. All Germany.

 

Then I have some old colour slides of Hungary - but then the colours on that ones are turning changed with time.

 

But to get back to 10 years - somebody told me few days ago that my grandma's photo from 1942 is history. After I've sent him a scan of my grandma's photo in 1918 he said nothing more ... Maybe I shall advise my mum to upload into her own photo.net portofolio the photos she made with her first camera, bought 1956 (I've uploaded photos of the camera to "tools of our trade") - until now I thought that portraits of me are a better idea ;) At least I told her that some B&W from Prague, Bratislava, Brno, in 1984 are a good idea :).

 

Actually I felt rather bad when I saw that people who bought their first camera 2 years ago or less are doing better photos, as I did not improve over so many years; never thought the age of the photos becomes a value; and thought that actually one shall upload newer and newer photos on photo.net to show how his/her photographic art improves and uploading older ones only proves that the selection quality from what was made anyway improves.

 

warmest regards

Maria