This week-end Turbohale hosted yet another edition of the International Bucharest Tattoo convention
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Tattoo Convention
Hero Run
Every such event has his heroes and an incontestable hero of the Midnight Run in Bucharest was this disabled guy who was able to run his full 5000 meters.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Share this:
Viral
Unexpectedly, a picture I snapped last week became viral on facebook, the stats below are “likes” and “shares” I can see directly, there were a lot of duplicates copied and uploaded separately by other people, for which I have no way to count them. On top of that, the picture was picked (copied from facebook) by mainstream traditional media, TV and newspapers like Realitatea, ProTV, Gândul, EVZ or RTV.
What was it about? Street garbage and people discarding it is a big problem in Romania and people eating sunflower seeds and spitting them on the ground are a special case. Friday evening, walking in the nearby I.O.R. park I assisted to an unexpected episode: a couple of local police officers confronted a group of youngsters practicing this bad habit and offered them a choice: take a broom and clean the place or pay a fine. This is original and funny and also quite unexpected, since the police rarely react to such things. I posted the image on social networks and the rest is history, a lot of people got enthusiastic over the police action.
There is one more side of the story, the police officers were not alone, they were accompanied by a couple of agents working for the private company hired by the park administration. One of those agents asked me not to show the logo of their company, which was printed on their shirts. I listened and excluded them from the frame. Their excess of secrecy made the company miss a huge free advertising opportunity.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Share this:
After the storm
The biggest storm from the last years hit the city, unfortunately personal duties kept me in-house afterwards, still in the morning I tried to capture its aftermath. Kind of late, this time the cleaning people were surprisingly fast, not much subjects left.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Share this:
Train Delivery
A smaller sister to the already established Street Delivery, this year Train Delivery debuted at Gara de Nord (Train Station North) in Bucharest. I didn’t manage to get there on Saturday when the weather was beautiful and the place animated, only on Sunday, when the station was covered by heavy rain and the action reduced a lot. Still, it was a good photography opportunity.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Share this:
Little painters
A lot of workshops took place at the Street Delivery festival and many of them were painting for children.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Share this:
Turtle life
Apparently my turtle pictorial show the happy life of some turtles in the IOR park of Bucharest, the reality is not so bright:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Share this:
St. Patrick parade
At the first thought, one wouldn’t expect a St. Patrick parade in Bucharest, where we probably have more Irish Pubs than Irish people (or maybe this is the reason), but our city had one for the first time. And I don’t think is a bad thing, is a good opportunity to get people out from their houses, walk, listen to music, meet other people, enjoy a show. Yes, as a first edition it has some (many) flaws, but that’s to be expected. Looking forward to the next year.
There was a Romanian riverdance group, a couple of Irish music groups, but there was a serious presence of Romanian traditional dance and music groups, from Săpânța, Vaslui and Vrancea. Which probably enjoy better the local palinka over the Irish beer.
Personally my biggest disappointment was not seeing any green beer, which I understand is an international tradition for the day. Not in Romania… fingers crossed for the following edition.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Share this:
Tango
This is already a tradition for orasul to get people dancing tango in the subway at the Unirii 1 station, as is a tradition for them to offer chocolate in the same place in the Martisor day every year, so guess what? Today I shoot people doing tango in the subway.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Share this:
More Martisor pics
If the experience yesterday shooting Martisor sellers was less than stellar (I had one security guard come to me and ask to stop, since the market is private property, even if everything happened on he street, so I have to move to the opposite side of the market), today at Unirii it was much better.
People asked me to shoot their dog (carrying flowers in his mouth), complained about the mayor and the chaos he created, talked about photos and such.
A couple of them even asked to be shoot and offered me free flowers (snowdrops, which I had to decline as my hands were busy). Of course, it was not all perfect, I heard some mumbling they better get paid “100 Euros” for being photographed (even if I didn’t shoot them, but the flowers they sold).
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Share this:
Men, run for your lives!
Only a few hours left, is the time for men to run for their lives: tomorrow is March 1st, the Romanian holiday where they are supposed to gift all women around with crappy shiny trinkets on a string.
Not only for their beloved one, not only also for their mother, not even only also for their sister, but also for their coworker, mother in law, neighbor and so on. Run!
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Share this:
Book launch
Last summer I posted a bunch of photos from Buzau Mountains, the so-called “Luana Land”. Now the guide from that trip, Diana Gavrila, launched a book about the region, its history, traditions and legends, called “Enigme din trecutul indepartat in Muntii Buzaului” (“Enigmas from the far past in Buzau Mountains”, expanding the stories I touched briefly in my post (all heard from her) and more.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Share this:
Last but not the least?
This happens all the time: I had to send pictures for an exhibition, the rule was “up to three”, the first and second choices were easy picks, but to make the number and maximize my chances, I picked a third one, an image from the 2012 Bucharest marathon. Of course, the jury selected the third one, which was, in my opinion, the least representative. But as said above, this is not unexpected, it happens all the time. More on the exhibition near the end of the next week.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Share this:
Fireworks Fail
The New Year Eve is the perfect opportunity for the photographer to get out of his house and capture some nice fireworks in all their glory. This year, for personal/family reasons, I had to stay home but still attended some fireworks: the closest ones, so we went to the Cuza (also known as I.O.R.) Park in Bucharest. It was as expected from our shady mayor: weak, boring, cheap. Reminder: next time, make the extra-effort and do to Piața Constituției, that is the worthy fireworks place in the city.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Share this:
Kill the pig! We are not a colony!
Something struck me when photographing a traditional pig butchering, a guy told me with pride “Europe should not tell us how to kill the pig!” (background: European Union tries to impose rules for sacrifices of animals raised in rural households, Romanian peasants refuse due to convenience and price increase).
That is the key to read many recent [in/e]volutions in our society: populist politicians protesting “we are not a colony” when EU tries to push us into civilization, modernization, morals or anti-corruption: we keep the old ways, killing the animals with our hands (and eating their blood), we elect known corrupt politicians and delinquent to rule the country.
And then we drink and wait for an elusive deity to save us all. Welcome to Romania!
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
