No pretence of art. No photographs of high definition, and certainly not the type of photos to put into your portfolio. No great artistic feelings here, and no “nobody understands my work” type of crap. Just some photographs taken during my last train ride to and from Bucharest, Romania.
Just a lazy afternoon, passenger of a wobbly and clunking train, sitting in an uncomfortable seat, looking through a dirty window to what the outside has to offer. As you can see, almost nothing; the train passes endless fields, barren of anything interesting. Derelict buildings, once part of the Romanian Railroad network, ploughed fields, fields with cows, fields with trees, fields with ruins and makeshift huts, fields with nothing really. Just fields, and the wild vegetation which, in places, hides what could be (but it’s not) the improbable interesting stuff.
These photographs are just part of my own attempt to something simple, yet functional. They are rough, many without proper focus, and in almost all of them, the composition is all over the place (meaning missing). But they are what they are. Some vehicle may be seen, in an accidental manner, for this was how they came to show on film. Nothing intentional. The annoying spots, coach lights reflexions, and the lack of proper focus on many pics are caused by the dirty windows, and such.
Are these boring? Do you feel like this was waste of time, film and effort? You could be right; for me, it was quite an experience, both in seeing and shooting. But then again, if I had to endure 8 hours round trip of such endless, boring, featureless and meaningless images, you should be doing this too, My little revenge on all who say they can find the best photographs in the most boring places. I do not. So enjoy !
PS – camera Nikon F2, film Ilford HP5 400 @ 200 (ID11, 1+3, 14′) and Ilford XP2 400 @ 200 (Rodinal 1+100, 60′, stand dev). Scanned negatives, only adjustments a bit of tweaks with gamma and contrast in some places.