Poladroid Pigeons

Alright, folks!

It has been a long time since the last post. My apologies. 

Let us kick off new season with some Romanian and Polish pigeons!

Photos from Warsaw and Bucharest.

It's only fair

I went to a fair few weeks ago in Bucharest and found many interesting and, more or less, absurd things. Here's some view from that experience.

Titan Vice

Alright, folks!

First of all, put the video below to play, and then click on the photo. 

Watch that picture as long as the song lasts and let your imagination run free!

My hoods in Bucharest, Romania - Lacul Titan

Ich bin ein Hamburger

Alright, folks!

And now again some new stuff.

Few weeks ago I travelled to Germania to meet a good friend of mine.

On one day we went to Hamburg. 

Here's some evening shots from the streets. 

A Child's night

Alright folks!

We may consider this as a continuum to the earlier post "From dusk till dawn"

As we continue our travel from dusk, more towards night.

Location: Parcul Cișmigiu, București, Româniă.

                                              Time: After sunset

Ps. Thanks to Irina and Gaël

Monthly retrospective #4

Alright, folks!

It is again time for the lost treasures from my archive. 

Since I missed December and January, let February's retrospective be triple issue.

These photos are all originally shot on 35mm b/w film and are from my North Savonian era. 

"B**** better recognize!"

From the dusk till dawn

Alright, folks!

As in the previous episode was stated, Bucharest has snow.

Repeat: We have snow. 

Snow equals winter.

Winter + snow equals beautiful dusk.

Let's see if in the next episode we shall reach the dawn.

But here's the dusk. Enjoy!

Black crows conquered the evening sky. Taken from my window.

"Casa de popului - The People's house"

Which castle is bigger?

Baby snowman at Parcul Cișmigiu

Subzero vs Scorpion

Alright, folks!

Bucharest got snow. In fact, I think all Romania got snow, 

in a way which was even noticed in the Finnish press. (As the protests in Bucharest barely aren't..)

I'm happy my apartment's window gives me a good view. And hope in the future you, dear readers, will also be happy about it.  

It gives me such a view, from the 8th floor, that I can also at late night shoot people playing football. 

In the snow. In a subzero temperature.

For all my 'international' readers to be cleared: In Finland one of our national sports is to play football in a snowdrift. So that is also why I'm a bit surprised, and honestly amazed, that people do almost the same here in Romania. 

"Ils sont fous ces roumains!" 

Ps. Raise your hands, how many of you actually knew that the dog of Obelix is in english called 'Dogmatix'?

(Original French name Idéfix - same as in Finnish)

Have you seen these guys?

Alright, folks!

..Sorry for staying quiet (or blind) for a while. But here's new pictures. Taken in December.

Does anyone know who these guys are? 

I've heard that one of them is from France, second from Italy and third is from Spain. And that they were traveling to Budapest, Hungary, from Bucharest, Romania, with one guy from Finland. 

Nevertheless, I really haven't seen them since (as the same group).

Ps. The 2nd last photo won the Erasmus photo contest on FB, with pictures that best describes each's Erasmus experience. My experience: "A jump to unknown."

Thanks again for all likers!

Zachor Shoah

Alright, folks!

This is the most epic and most serious post so far.

In order to get into the mood, please click the play-button on the next video.

As the Naziz and their allies and collaborators implemented plans to destroy the jews of Europe (which would come to be know as the Holocaust or Shoah), the Romanian state unleashed its own systematic persecution of the jews, which was heralded by the antisemitic legislation of 1940.

 The pogroms in Doroholand Galați, in June 1940, as well as those in București, in January 1941, and in Iași, in June 1941, left thousands dead and marked the beginning of the organised destruction of Romanian jewry.

 In october 1941, the regime of Ion Antonescu began deporting the jews of Basarabia and Bucovina to Transnistria, launching a genocidal campaign to eliminate the country's jewish population. Between 1940 and 1944, the Romanian state was responsible for the deaths of at least 280,00 Romanian and Ukrainian jews. Twenty five thousand people of Roma origin were also deported to Transnistria, where 11,00 died. In the spring of 1944, the occupying Hungarian authorities in the northwestern regions of Romania deported 135,00 Transylvanian jews, who were murdered in Auschwitz by the nazi Germany.

Memorialul victimelor holocaustului din Româniă

autor Peter Jacobi

8.10.2009

The Romanian nation and their government erected this memorial as a permanent place of remembrance and as a warning addressed to future generations.

The star of David is the symbol most commonly associated with Judaism and the Jewish people. The nazis and their allies marked the Jews with the yellow star of David as a way to separate them from the rest of the population and to target them for persecution.

In many towns and villages, Jews were murdered and burried in mass graves. 

To this day these graves remain unmarked and forgotten.

The Roma wheel evokes the Romani Indian heritage. 

The sixteen-spoked wheel adorns the Romani flag and symbolises travel and fire.

During the Holocaust in Romania, freight railcars were used to transport Jews and Roma to their deaths. Many Jews from Bucovina and half of the Roma from the Old Kingdom were deported to Transnistria by train. 

In Iași, two death trains left in 1941 for Călărași and Podu Iloaiei and carried 4,432 Jews of whom 2,594 perished. all Jews in northern Transylvania were deported by train to Auschwitz.

And no, my dear readers, this is not a chimney. 

It's Coloana memoriala.

Each side of the column contains a single hebrew letter which taken together spell the word zachor (remember).

Kuukauden retrospektiivi / Monthly retrospective #2

Alright, folks!

It's already the first Saturday of the new month, so here's again some treasures from my archives. 

Only for you all. :)

In February 2009 I was shooting a school task given to me, at the art house Artel in Lahti. 

Students of Lahti Folk High school were working on their wood drawings. 

This is a short documentary of that.

On jälleen aika kuukausittaiselle arkistojen helmiä-katsannolle.

2009 helmikuussa kuvasin koulutehtävää varten Lahden kansanopiston taidetila Artelilla kuvataideopiskelijoita työskentelemässä puupiirrosten parissa.

Ps. Romaniakuvia seuraavaksi..