Do your backpack and go

The most difficult step to do when you plan a travel is to take the decision about the departure. 

Istanbul was my dream since many years. I haven't been on a proper holiday since a long time and Istanbul was always on the first place on my traveling list. 

Or better.. I wanted to go to Constantinople... 

So this year I decided to go no matter what was happening around. I was lucky because also one of my Guggie-friends, Ruth, had the same dream. 

We took the tickets and we met in Istanbul. 

Istanbul is a fever. To arrive there in the evening meant to go through the city that was just waking up; lights, neons, people everywhere, all shops were open, people were wondering around, laughing and talking. 

When we entered to the hard of the old part of Istanbul I felt like in Paris. The streets became narrow and hilly. Down there, in front of us, we could glimpse the Golden Horn. 

It all seemed quite magical.

We felt this magic atmosphere when we were walking for the first time through the streets of Istanbul, so desired and expected with anxiety.

The day after it didn't take us a lot to decide what we were suppose to do.

There was only one place we could go: Hagia Sophia.

The dream of every art historian, the myth, the heart of Constantinople. 

Our hostel was very close to the Sultanahmet and all the most important monuments. We arrived to the church after five minutes walk, we joined the queue and soon after we could admire the interior of the monument. 

We entered and we immediately saw the space, vast and open, with thousands of veils, arches and columns, dividing and opening it at the same time. I think this space organization of the church was the reason why Muslims decided to adapt it into a mosque. The idea of was very similar to the Muslim habit of veiling, hiding, looking through.

Once entered you wonder around and slowly get familiar with the place. 

And then you start to understand how strong the Muslim imprint on the entire church is, how many things did not survive to our time, how many mosaics we can't see. Walls, once covered with shiny tesseras are all painted in a strange ochre colour. 

There is no trace of the altars or other decorations. The church seems to be rather a shadow of the great Hagia Sophia. 

The mosaics that survived are incredibly beautiful. The angel above the presbytery shows so many traces of the Roman painting. The mosaic with Christ, Virgin Mary and Saint John the Baptist is just indescribably touching. I simply couldn't stop looking in Christ eyes. 

We spent more then two hours in the church, walking, observing, breathing, experiencing the space because Hagia Sophia is an experience. 

Hagia Sophia, August 2012

Firenze Santa Maria Novella

I was planing to do those pictures for months even before I got my new camera last year. 

This building attires me since I first came to Florence. I admire it especially during the night when the light underlines the architecture, its geometry and plasticity. Thanks to a strong contrast between the shades and the lights it is possible to see clearly the line of the building. All neons are shining brightly and the station is almost empty. This is when the architecture plays the main role. 

Often from people who come to Florence I hear many complains about Firenze Santa Maria Novella. They find the station not inviting at all, anonymous and silent. They remain indifferent to it.

Me instead I adore this building, every detail, all the surroundings: the station itself, the platforms, the waiting room, the Palazzina Reale from the side of Piazza Adua. I agree that the station is not in very good conditions (as most of the train stations in Europe). Moreover, it is in continuous restoration like many, many, many buildings in Florence, but still, I simply love it. 

I remember surprised faces of the people that were looking at me with suspect when I was taking pictures. Many asked me: "What is beautiful here?". 

Nothing. Or maybe everything?

A bit of history?

The station was built between 1933 and 1935 by Gruppo Toscano with Giovanni Michelucci as the leader. The aim was to unify the new station with the historical outlook of Piazza dell'Unità and the Santa Maria Novella Church in front of it. It explains the use of pietra forte on the outside of the station from that side. It is one of the greatest examples of rationalism in Italian architecture. 

For you from me Santa Maria Novella train station:

Santa Maria Novella station, June 2012.

York

Life of a PhD student can be a little bit annoying from time to time. You spend all day in the library, 7 days a week, you read and you write, then you read and you write... you go for a coffee break or for a lunch, but then you go back to the library and you read and you write, you read and you write. And then you meet a friend and he asks you: how is your research going? And you want to kill him because you really can not think any more about your research and your thesis. You are always unsatisfied of your work. What you write never seems perfect to you, you want it better and better, different, more interesting. You are always so slow in writing and they ask you: how many words did you write today? 

When the frustration is to big you have to take a day off, do something different. You do not want to think about reading and writing and reading and writing, about counting words and about your supervisor who tells you that you have to work harder. 

You have to take a break.

After the first stressful period in Durham I took a break, I went with Lorenzo, Giulio and his friend Gabriele to York. I took my camera because for me taking pictures is the best way to relax myself. Guys were looking at it with jealousy. 

We had fun. We were wondering around the city, I took some pictures, guys took pictures of me taking picutres. 

It was on Sunday so we went also for a compulsory Sunday roast. We visited a very interesting exhibition at York Art Gallery: William Etty: Art and Controversy. I think we will never forget it... 

It was a perfect break! On our way back we were almost missing the library, our books and thesis. 

York, 2011.

Ruins

Every revival in visual arts starts with the cult of ruins.
Ruins are physical remains, traces of the past, tangible proofs of others activity. That is why they seam so concrete and real. At the same time every ruin contains a lack. It is never complete, full. Thanks to this lack a ruin is open to one's imagination, interpretation. It invites to write its history, to build a discourse around it.
Ruin has to be completed by somebody's creativity, it has to be actualized by it.
This is also why revivals are never repetition of the past. Renaissance art is different than ancient art, Gothic revival in England did not bring to the Middle Ages once again.

There is something fascinating in a ruin. It is so easy to mythologize it, to describe it attributing  to the past all the qualities that we fell missing in our present reality.

Looking at the English ruins I was thinking about romantic poets, writers and artists who were wondering between those rocks and dreaming about the return to social solidarity of Middle Ages, about the mystery of Gothic cathedrals and the beauty of true faith.

Poetry of a ruin, York 2011.

My and my scanner reunited... Blog's revival!

After a long break (too long) I am back!
I am in Warsaw for Christmas and that means that I can finally scan my negatives!
The good news of 2011 is that during the summer I bought myself a wonderful Mamiya RZ67 and now I am scanning all my new photos made with this wonderful camera.
As this year I have lived in and I have visited few different places so... I brought some pictures that I can share with you.
I should start with showing you a place that took my heart and obsessed my brain, that infiltrated itself in my life and do not want to let me go... against any logic and any rational explanation.
It is obviously Florence with its art and its history.
I love to wonder through its streets and read the history from the buildings, bricks, facades of palaces and churches, try to figure out the names of the families whose coats of arms are exposed on them. And I like to picture her.

So today for you Piazza del Limbo with the church of Santi Apostoli:

 Piazza del Limbo, Firenze, 2011.

Palazzo Corner and Canal Grande

 

 Ca' Corner (Jacopo Sansovino), Venezia 2010.

 

Canal Grande, Venezia 2010. 

log time ago...

Tecnical images seam already so natural for us that we don't notice a wonderful thing: images defines our imagination, the way that we perceive the past represented on the photos.
Look at the photo... made with old style camera has this nice sfumato, that gives feeling of late 19th century...
Only people are so modern...

Venice, long long time ago, 2010.