Compensation Task, deadline August 29, to be assessed August 30, lecturers Thijs and Ola: * Portait of a Yellow * Portrait of Silver * Portait a obsession * The smell of one string of grass * Portrait a portrait
In order to select the topic for the portrait series that I wanted to make, as a first step I’ve looked at the destinations where I will spend my summer time and what would be my activities there. I had plans to go to Moldova and Germany, and also some short trips to Arles photo festival and Warsaw. For me MOLDOVA felt like the most interesting and inspirational, from all these destinations. In order to understand what I could do there, I’ve researched what kind of portraits other photographers did there, especially international photographers. Next I’ve looked at the photographic topics that local photographers are using. I was not surprised but most of the portraits or topics were related to the rural life in Moldova, especially highlighting how poor is the country. The majority photographed kids with their grand parents in vilages. It is a well known fact that a lot of parents from Moldova try to go abroad to earn money for their family and live their kids at home with grandparents or relatives. (The most popular destinations for working abroad beeing Russia, Italy, Spain, France or Germany.) The local photographers pick mostly the rural areas as their documentary topics as well and tipically use black and white or other dark tone colors as their style.
////// Topic - Moldova ////// ÅSA SJÖSTRÖM / Silent Land
ELIJAH HURWITZ / Moldova, Transnistria
Focus > to create a photo series which reconfigures the Moldavian rural life into a collection based on local stereotypes.
////// Artistic Family //////
All images Š Martina Ferrara
The smell of one string of grass ////// envy ‘Iarba este mai verde la vecin’ - engl- ‘The grass is greener on my neighboours side’ This is the expresion of a fundamental human state - envy, wich suffers a methamorphosis through time. Rhe early historical context were we encounter this feeling is the fundamental romanian folk creation - Miorita. Now, the Vrancean And the Transylvanian In their thoughts, conniving, Have laid plans, contriving At the close of day To ambush and slay The Moldavian; He, the wealthier one, Had more flocks to keep, Handsome, long-horned sheep, Horses, trained and sound, And the fiercest hounds. The saying itself beeing is ajusted from the medieval to the contemporary era through the problem of the mass migration and is interpreted as abroud is always better then home. MOOD BOARD: MIORITA INSPIRATION
Portrait of a portrait ////// pride ‘Nu observa barna din ochiul propriu dar vede paiul din ochiul altcuiva’ engl ‘Can’t notice the beam in your own eye but can see the straw in someone else’s eye’. One of the biggest contraversis of moldavian people is it’s national identity and it’s concept of an united nation. As a nation Moldova has forever been in a constant oscillation between Western and Eastern world. Since our independence in the 90’s we have learned what our national identity is by sneak picking from the west and beeing nostalgic about the east. Half of the population have their eyes on the West and the other half’s hearts are filled with nostalgia for the East. Nevertheless many pride to be Moldavians when there is an advantage in that.
Portrait of silver ////// sloth ‘munca face pe om’ - engl ‘a man is made through work’ Moldovan people are well known abroad as hard workers, loyal, obidient and enthuisiastic but who struggle to use their skills in their home country as here it is not appreciated and payed off. The land and love are essential for every moldavian, as seen by Liviu Rebreanu in his novel ‘Ion’ 1924. Each and every of them is connected to his land through the ‘silver’ he’s not using anymore uses. Most of the young people from Moldova who had a chance to find a job outside the country would never return. They struggle to use their skills in their home country because the economic environment is very corrupt, the salaries are paid in envelops under the table and nobody can rely on a working social structure. Poor economic security might be a stimuli, but there is a very strong sense of “everybody needs to work hard” in the country. People try to make the ends meet as much as they can, and the ones who go beyond that try to show it off as much as they can.
Portrait of obsession ////// avarice Se fuduleste ca musca in lapte. avaritie eng Bragging like the fly in the milk pot The housing space per capita has exponentially increased during the last few years. Paradoxically Moldavians who work abroad buy and/ or build giant houses in their villages or cities even if they don’t live there or plant to come back soon. Many say that they hope to be back some day, but they only last for a few months. Their whole life is considered to be successful if they have built a house and they invest all their work and money into it. The bigger the house the richier you are and more important. A lighter version of the ‘construction obsession’ is the ‘reconstruction’ aka ‘remont’ - it is the habit to renovate your house every year during the summer. The idea of showing off to everyone that you have made it is so compelling that people even sympathise with corrupt politicians or simply publicly known mafia. They sympathise because in their small mind everyone wants to be big, even though the price is to steal from others. Social media pictures with the biggest, shiniest and newest thing are the ones getting most of the likes. People park their BMWs in front of the clubs or bars on the weekends, in which there is definitely a photographer who captures the lavishness.
Portrait of yellow ////// wrath sindromul kuliokului engl The flying plastic bags syndrome. Each Moldavian which respects himself has a plastic bag with plastic bags in it, or a special drawer dedicated to plastic bags. The bags are preserved with a lot of care, sometimes there is even a special drawer for special bags from gifts or fancy clothes. In villages people wash the bags and use them for something else again. The plastic bags are just the surface, but the actual stimuli to why people act like beavers and collect many things around their house and have a mentality of “maybe it would be useful someday� because of its economic situation. Regardless of the reason for using so many plastic bags, the result is very disturbing since our whole nature is embellished with plastic bags.
WAY OF PRESENTING ///// PROJECTION ////
As a way of presenting the photographs I chose to do ‘home’ projection. As a symbol of how we used to hide everything as a culture and we don’t want to accept our behavior and our real portrait. For this I used the phone with the loupe. The photographs could be made of a bigger scale in this way too, but I prefer to keep it small as this would look as something hidden you would look in your room or would like to share to someone in secret.