Postcards from Berlin ll

   Berlin, October 2019. I lived here between 2011 and 2015 and it definitely shaped my way of being. After so many years and I still have - to my surprise, dreams where I find myself still living there. This didn't happened when I left home at 18, nor when I left Bucharest after 4 years. Berlin has a special place in my heart, its memory is vivid and complex, as I can still remember the smell of burned coal and coffee floating over the streets of Neukölln.

    This is a series through which I am looking to somehow recreate these memories into images. In the same way that Mr. Bean was sending greeting cards on Christmas to himself, in the same way I will revisit the city from time to time and create my own postcards as souvenirs. You can find the original post here.

 Pentax Spotmatic F on Portra 160.

ber-cj

      In 2014 (if I am not wrong), while wondering the streets of Berlin, I found a film case on a bench. I was almost sure it has already been exposed, yet I decided to grab it and figure it out later what am I going to do about it. 

      

      So I kept it for a while and then totally forgot about it, then found it again and decided to shoot it anyway. If unused, my luck, if not, we will see the results. So I loaded it up into my Pentax Spotmatic F and this time went to wonder the streets of Cluj-Napoca, taking random shots.

     I don't know who exposed the roll in the first place, I only know that my shots were pretty dull, and from what I have seen as well hers / his, but the results are something at least intriguing. Therefore if you know you lost a roll of film in Berlin and also recognize the pictures, then I'm sorry for ruining your film but then again, you shouldn't have lost it in the first place.

   Berlin - Cluj, 2014/2018

   Pentax Spotmatic F

   Asahi Takumar 55/1.8

  

postcards from berlin

Olympus Mju. Berlin, 2014/2015. Fuji Superia 800.

old houses and radioactivity

            I've returned today to the woods, to shoot some abandoned house that I had explored some nights ago with with my friends. Also was a chance to test my new Asahi Pentax 1.8/55 lens. 

           The building is surrounded by woods, deserted areas and a residential complex for old people that seemed to completely ignore me while jumping fences and walls.

           Interesting fact that I've read about this lens is about its radioactivity. It's deadly good. It seems that the use of thorium oxide allow to minimize chromatic aberrations while utilizing lens of lower curvature that are cheaper to produce. However I hope that at least in this case, the radiation is barely strong enough to penetrate my skin, although it says that some models can radiate doses close to a typical chest x-ray.

shiver for me now