[PHOTO ESSAY] A culture shock, not that shocking
It was four years ago when I had just left home to start a journey through Russia. Arriving in Moscow was interesting, after the first language challenges and hours of miscommunications leading to us finally getting train tickets for the rest of Russia. We arrived terribly hungry in a super fancy design hotel with an extremely amazing shower - for one night we didn't bother to look for budget options. Next day would be the start of the journey through real Russia, Moscow we would see another day, we reasoned.
And so we did. 28 hour train journeys wouldn't be an exception in the next month, but this journey only took us about 4 hours from Moscow. As we had left home only one night ago we didn't need to challenge ourselves... immediately, right?
We arrived at our Airbnb (My favourite way to travel, but I don't recommend it at all for Russia - for those who wonder :D) and had to set aside our surprise about all the steel doors with heavy locks and codes and extra measures before we could finally enter our apartment. All a result of heavy violence only 20 years ago these steel doors would follow us all through Russia - and we would get used to it.
What I didn't get used to - for all the month I visited different parts of this country - was the amazingly grey/beige/pastel design choices that were made in every single home or even hotel. It made me sad, as if colour was too brave a thing to add to homes, as if brightness was too celebratory for clothes or couches.
I suddenly remembered the Hungarian girl that stayed with me for a week while I was in secondary school - she told me 'you wear all these bright coloured clothes'! And she explained how in her country everything was muted, as a result of people not wanting to literally stand out from the crowd, to stay safe, to be as invisible as possible.
The 5 pictures I shared throughout this past are literally the first pictures I shared with friends and family on Facebook from my travels through Russia. I told them how I was enjoying my first pastel coloured apartment. And yes, many more like these would follow...
Scrolling through Facebook brought me back to times and some interesting 'photo notes' as I would call them, tiny series of maybe 3-5 pictures of something I did or something I noticed. Interesting. Also an extensive shoot from the hip kind of phase I was in with all grainy but very real photographs from a few weeks I spend in New York all by myself. Looking back at those pictures now they might be more interesting than I gave them credit for at the time. More and more I feel the need to go back to Lightroom and revisit those shots - and who knows, share them on Steem?
What's that? A 70s colour palette? :)
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You like it? :')
!BEER has a similar colour but more vibrant :P
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Sits back on her comfy 70s pastel coloured couch, looking through her perfect lace-y and pastel coloured drapes decorated windows, opens her bottle of bland Russian beer, and takes a sip while saying Cheers to @bluerobo
Sorry for the bland beer. My mistake. I paid with #OldSteem. Next time I'm using #NewSteem to get you that fizzy stuff
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BEERgo to steem-engine.com.Hey @soyrosa, here is your
BEERtoken. Enjoy it!Love this, since I'm from Eastern Europe the 70s were similar in design so this feels very home like.
Glad you recognize something of 'home' here @pvls :-) It's valuable to a photographer to get that kind of feedback!
feel this is just a socialism thing or maybe slavs thing. the patterns and the look. now as a lot of those countries ended up falling apart and with shitty standard a lot of it stayed like that for years.
except the metal doors, we were pretty crime "free" in the 70-80. i do live in the small town but i know we did not lock our door even at night.
Yes, traces of 'falling apart' were certainly visible during all our stays in Russia - and the communal places in these buildings were way worse than what I'm showing in the shots above. Locking doors was still a thing here - when our keys to our apartment didn't work and we needed to open a 'communal door' somewhere in the building (after already having passed a metal door with heavy key and code lock) it took us some convincing to get someone to open that door for us :')
Made me feel like I had a very innocent/privileged upbringing. I've never really felt unsafe anywhere.
saying again, small town, but i feel my parents had a rough idea of where i am in my childhood (8 to 15 years old), and i knew when i should be home. we were just roaming around, living on the end of the town, some forests (it looked enormous when i was a kid :) ). In those years Yugoslavia was a safe place, until all that stupid war and politics.
I think your photos are almost always better than you give them memory for. I think that is true for all photographers. That 'one shot' that is magnificent stays in your mind and the merely very good fade.
I also suspect that there is some revisiting pain and problems with your Russia trip that also may have 'colored' your judgement on some of your photos. Just a guess.
I think you're very much right on all fronts here @bigtom13 :-) These pictures literally come from a Facebook post in which I share 'pictures from one year ago' as I didn't share them during my travels and it took me a year to feel brave enough to revisit the shots.
<3
Strolling down memory lane! Thank you for taking us along with you.
Am familiar with the photo-notes technique myself, which prooves far more valuable that extensive albums or journals now that I have grown older and processed the first half of my life.
Hope you share more.
Love to deplore the shabby pastels. Spot on impressions.
(By the by, not noticing a lot of activity on #creativecoin; any further suggestions? Still fumbling with silly questions: How does one get a starting 0.001 vote there? Clearly people have their votes allocated and newcomers must fight hard to be noticed at all. Becoming part of a tribe is hard and mysterious work! More of interest to me is, finding unique but lasting talent so I might have to move on into another category. Less bothered if I am not read in return but I do want to be able to give the busker their coin, so I must decide soon how to wise up on the wallet front.
Another silly question that boggles my mind, since I wish I had it: how come you have a more than 5 tags option? )
Hey @sukhasanasister! :-) Super happy you found your way to #creativecoin! I'm going to try and answer all your questions.
No silly questions! Just questions. Ask more if needed. I don't mind you sending me an e-mail (mail at soyrosa dot nl) either if you wish since this might be harder to keep track of.
Good luck!
Sad face: nothing to claim yet....!
Do I have to transfer from Steemit or something?
Am I not showing up on Creativecoin page?
Posting on Steemit with creativecoin hashtag, though does get me onto creativecoin page, doesn't it?
Thanks for the email address which I will keep at hand (has there ever been an easier one to remember? How did you do that by the way? Something I've always wondered, my son gives me conflicting answers, and very expensive options), for you never know when I might get a lot of complicated questions (yes, silly no doubt! Although I know as a teacher these don't exist.... but teacher knows best, you know how it is) and you are always a clear and refreshing source of information and encouragement.
Ahhh - I think what I should've added is that payouts are as on Steem after seven days :-)
YES! Look at creativecoin.xyz/@sukhasanasister and you'll see all your posts that were tagged with #creativecoin.
You mean get that mail address? It's as simple as buying a domain name (like soyrosa dot nl) with some web hosting and then go in the admin area of your webhoster to make any mail address you want that ends with that domain name :-) So I could also make a 'steem at soyrosa dot nl' if I wanted :-) because everything with soyrosa dot nl is 'mine' as I pay for it.
Anyway, feel free to fire your questions, I might take a few days to answer as mail is something I tend to open only 3 times a week or so, but I will always answer :D
(And thank you for your lovely comments on my photography as well <3)
Are those your towels in the first picture? The colour of them seems so out of place with everything else!
I've always been curious about Russia.. more more!
Hello @soyrosa, thank you for sharing this creative work! We just stopped by to say that you've been upvoted by the @creativecrypto magazine. The Creative Crypto is all about art on the blockchain and learning from creatives like you. Looking forward to crossing paths again soon. Steem on!
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