The Hermitage in St. Petersburg

This fall I visited St. Petersburg, Russia, my old stomping grounds from studying abroad in 2001.  The crown jewel of the city for me is the Hermitage museum, which was the first stop on our first full day in the city.

































I could spend hours and days wandering the gorgeous halls of the Hermitage, despite the teeming crowds.  I took these pictures with my Nikon FM, Kodak Tri-X 400, and Fuji Pro 400H.

Sarajevo

In September 2013, I traveled through Bosnia and Hercegovina, Montenegro, and Serbia with my friend Trisha.  This turned out to be the most thought-provoking, interesting, beautiful and enjoyable trip of the many that I have taken.

Our first stop was Sarajevo, a city that is difficult to separate from its war-torn recent past, but that is so much more.  This is what I remember most about the city that I quickly came to love.  The morning call to prayer from the neighborhood mosque awakening me each morning.  The narrow, cobblestone pedestrian streets of the Old Town.  The wide, tram-tracked streets of the modern area.  The warm and friendly people, who spoke English but patiently welcomed my broken Bosnian.

The understandable anger that lingers.

The romance of the old architecture juxtaposed with hundreds of gravestones.

The grim dilapidation of the Yugoslav architecture, sometimes bearing scars of shelling and shooting.

The cake.  All day, at any time of day, the people of Sarajevo seemed to be eating cake at outdoor cafes.  We eagerly joined in on this cultural pastime.

The group of well-dressed older gentleman gathered around to watch a huge game of chess. 

The thick, strong Bosnian coffee.  

The stunning view from above, made chilling by the knowledge that snipers used the same vantage-point to murder citizens during the siege.  

The quiet beauty of a 18th century garden and home-turned-museum.   

The emergence of the sun and clear skies that lifted our spirits.

The 1984 Winter Olympics bobsled course in ruins.

The delicious blackberries.

The local couple who came to this vista with lawn chairs, a bottle of Jager and a boom box.  

The gut-wrenching exhibits on the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the Srebrenica genocide.

The quiet public parks and green spaces.

The two quirkiest quirks: the borderline absurd pedestrian situation and the cat graffiti (!).  

As tourists, we barely scratched the surface of the city and would like to return to experience more.  After four days in Sarajevo, our next stop was to Mostar via bus.  To be continued...

Places

Halvat Hotel - a lovely inn near Old Town with welcoming proprietors and breakfast in the morning.

Sarajevo Funky Tours - goofy name, fascinating and friendly tours.

Svrzo's House - the aforementioned museum.

Restoran Kibe - the best meal of the trip.

Dveri - another delicious meal.

Shopping in Paris

I found a roll of film from my October trip to Paris and developed it over the weekend.  I discovered photos I took while shopping at Galeries Lafayette.

Wish I could go back soon!

{mamiya 645 and ilford delta 3200}

Julia Margaret Cameron's Women

Sifting through the shelves of photography books at my local used bookstore, I luckily came across Julia Margaret Cameron's Women by Sylvia Wolf.  Cameron created her portraits in the 19th century, blazing a trail for future portrait photographers, both men and women.  This book was my introduction to her work and now I am a great admirer.  

Here are some of the most interesting tidbits from the text.

On women as portrait subjects:

...contemporary portrait photography, commercial studios strive to generate images of women that say, "I'm fun.  I'm friendly.  I'm enjoying life and will help you enjoy it, too."

If Cameron's portraits of women convey a message, it's "I'm ready for the worst.  I have resources that can be brought to bear on the tragedies I know lie ahead of me, that lie ahead of every woman who lives and loves other creatures who are mortal."

On inspiration and culture:

She had the words of Romantic poets in her head as we might has the lyrics of songs by the Beatles.

If we cannot reproduce her literary culture, if our minds' mansions are furnished, instead of with stanzas by Milton and Shakespeare, with episodes of favorite television shows, can we understand or fully respond to her photographs?

On personal photographic style:

"When focussing and coming to something which, to my eye, was very beautiful, I stopped there instead of screwing on the lens to the more definite focus which all other photographers insist upon," she wrote.

But what is style except an embodiment of the way an artist sees, the distinctive angle, distance, and focus at which the world looks right to her.

After a turn through Julia Margaret Cameron's Women, I am always ready to grab an old camera, a roll of B&W film and a female friend to play portrait studio.

As a side note, I suppose this would be my first post as part of the Women Writers Reading Group of Le project d'amour.  I have been reading so many books by women, I want to write at least a quick bit about each as I go along.

{Top photo mine with Rolleiflex, final three photos by Julia Margaret Cameron}