Portraits, catch-up etc

Back from Ljubljana. An interesting few days, including such notable events as failing to find Tito’s leg and the man three seats in front of me on the plane from Vienna to Athens (I now look at the photography in magazines, including in-flight magazines, with a new, critical eye, sensing what the photographer was thinking and how they worked at getting the perfect compositional balance as well as what was going through the picture editor’s mind) having a totally out of control screaming fit as the plane banked steeply to the left immediately after a windy, wobbly take off. Interestingly (perversely?) I found myself chuckling at this, as I suddenly realised it was exactly 13 years to the day since I last sat on a plane with somebody screaming on it, that time being my first flight to Cuba on board a former Aeroflot Tupelov now in the hands of the national Cuban airline Cubana, its starboard engine sounding like somebody just poured a bucket of sand in it as it came in to make an emergency landing in Varadero during a particularly lively tropical storm. Thankfully we didn’t crash either time, a fact I was more than grateful for this time having just splashed out €20 on a copy of François Truffaut’s 1966 masterpiece Fahrenheit 451. I don’t think I know a film that possesses so much atmosphere. There’s something quite impossible to explain about it regardless of the horror behind the premise of the story. If you’ve never seen it then I suggest you track down a copy. Julie Christie was never better and Oskar Werner was never quite so odd. Shot by a youngish Nicolas Roeg, visually the film is a treat, featuring a host of ultra-low-budget sets and several scenes that were reversed during editing. The film was a flop on release, but it’s now considered a classic.

Having worked a ridiculous amount of hours during the previous fortnight and once again done a considerable amount of travelling I decided to give myself three days off work to wind down as well as concentrate on the course. I’d organised a portrait session in Ljubljana with one of Slovenia’s new rich businessmen but time for both of us proved impossible to make the date. I thus arrived back in Greece on Sunday afternoon with three days to go before portrait deadline and three portraits to shoot. Eager to get out of work mode as soon as possible I went out with a bunch of friends on Sunday evening, the day before the start of Lent when the whole of Greece becomes a carnival, everyone dresses up in stupid costumes, and people eat vast amounts of food. My point and shoot camera was still in my pocket, so I took a few interesting pictures without flash, this time with Homer’s voice added to Paul’s mumbling away in the back of my head every time I pressed the shutter. Last week in Ljubljana was also the first time I’d shot stuff for a city guide using my new knowledge. It certainly had an effect of just about everything I took a picture of, but looking at the finished results I still see I’ve got a lot to learn. I’m comforted by the memories of starting other things that I went on to become exceptionally good at, and what an idiot I was at the start. Not to say that my photography isn’t improving, but as Jono and myself were discussing last week, the strains of work really do eat into college time. What limited amounts of free time I have at the moment that I can put into photography more than often come with tiredness and a difficulty in giving the subject 100%. My plan for the next few months is to move further away from work and concentrate more and more on the photography. Just exactly how I’m going to do this without moving into a tent I haven’t quite worked out yet. A more partisan approach to the fact that I’ve got a surprisingly large number of filthy-rich friends would do the trick, but my irritating work ethic continues to get in the way.

Anyway, the party on Sunday night reminded me that Greece was going to be closed the next day (yesterday), effectively turning my three days into two. It’s a good job I love a challenge. I’m also relishing the constant struggle of trying to find subjects and negotiate with them in a country that still remains a mystery to me and whose language I don’t speak. Although it was entirely the right decision to leave Lithuania I can’t help thinking every time I have to find a subject to photograph how much easier it would’ve been in Lithuania, where after seven years I new everyone, understood the culture, and spoke the language. Here it’s the opposite. Bah! A couple of friends at our evening out were off to a free concert by the sea the next day, given by the Emory Wind Ensemble from Atlanta GA, currently touring Greece. I tagged along with my dSLR, and managed to corner the orchestra’s director, Scott Stewart, who agreed to let me come along to their dress rehearsal for their evening concert later in the day. A superb challenge for a group portrait, I wanted to get them somewhere outside with their instruments in an informal situation and take some pictures and thought it would be useful to get to know them a little by watching them rehearse and chat with a few of them. They’ve got a busy schedule, and as I write they’re all off on one of the islands but will be back this afternoon, hopefully in the right frame of mind and with enough time to let me photograph them. Watch this space. Never one to miss an opportunity, I thought I’d take some pictures of them rehearsing, which was a pig as the lighting was so bad, I don't know them or their habits, the music they play etc. I felt uncomfortable, didn't get the access I needed (or rather I felt uncomfortable clambering over them as they played) and realised it would never make a college piece as there was no opportunity to control the event. A wonderful experience all the same, looking over what I shot I realise my framing remains appalling. What I see through the viewfinder remains nothing like the finished photograph. Does anybody else suffer from this? One interesting observation, one that keeps rearing its head, is that whenever I take the kind of shots that I feel comfortable taking rather than the ones I feel I should be taking the results turn out better. But of course it’s not my instinct that needs to be developed, it’s the nuts and bolts of the work. Whilst I was waiting for them to turn up at the theatre I was approached by a fabulous-looking elderly Socialist who on learning I was English insisted on shaking my hand due to the fact that I came from the same country where they publish the Socialist Worker and where Karl Marx is buried. He very kindly let me take a quick picture of him (above), and I almost asked him if I could come and take more pictures of him another time. But I didn’t. My friend Anita, who I wrote about before concerning the Jewish bits and pieces I’ve photographed here, has offered to find out if one of Volos’ remaining Auschwitz survivors would mind if I took some pictures of them. I can’t see this happening before deadline if it happens at all, but as I see myself gravitating more and more into the area of portraiture, I can wait. It’s now lunchtime on Tuesday and to date everybody I’ve called about portraits has given, for one reason or another, a negative response. I’m now off to find the local headquarters of the Greek Communist Party (KKE) to see if I can find the main man and get him to agree to me taking pictures of him in his office.

I continue to be annoyed at myself for not making much progress with the Kosovo photographs. As I was really very much experimenting I don’t mind entirely, as I really do have to work hard at working out what it is I want to end up with. I simply don’t have the time at the moment, although I am, slowly, editing the 700 pictures down into a more manageable amount. I’ve got my 12 headings for the series and will continue to work on it, hopefully with the help of others on the course. As well as reading everything there is to know about Slovenia and Ljubljana, I’m also currently reading The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists and, for reasons to daft to go into, two of John Simpon’s three autobiographical books simultaneously. I hope you’re all having as much fun as I am.