BLOCKS 45&70 , NEW BELGRADE , August 2012
Initially there were great intentions in constructing a 'friendly', 'green' residential district, but the buildings as well as the surrounding walkways and recreational areas complete with hide out 'bunkers' have been neglected owing to lack of state funding. Among the bushes there lie pools of concrete in an enormous unfinished 'WaterPark'. It was august and incredibly hot. The trip organized was set for 12 am onwards a disastrous error already, being an unearthly hour for a photographer to be out, let alone in nearly 40° heat.
The images I came back with , as well as myself, were terribly 'sun burnt', and contrasty. It was really disappointing. I messed around on photoshop trying to calm the contrast. Finally when I hit the Light /Shadow control instead of bringing down the highlights it cancelled all the shadows by mistake. It was a perfect mistake. They have acquired a strange quality of postcards of new industrial, commercial and residential buildings from the 50's and 60's. By losing the dark shadows I was suddenly left with what I had encountered. An unearthly place of no shadowy shelter , the noise of heat and yet a silence and tension of some otherworldly encounter, where everyone has left. Contamination. Danger. And there is a sad loneliness to these images, a place built for people in which to wander, where no one wanders, except to wonder. Again and again I am drawn to digital photography not only for it's quality and definition but also for these unexpected possibilities.
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