First Russian National Open Photography Awards

Well, well, well. Today im gonna tell you about photography (surprise-surprise) and Russia. And how these to words come together if they do at all.

May, 14th.
In Moscow took place kinda epic event - First Russian National Open Photography Awards. Some numbers: 14500 prints, 2000 photographers from 29 countries, 12 professional categories and 10 for rookies.

So, some winners.
Rookie of the year - Tatiana Ilyina, photoset "Paris in portraits"

Photography of the year. double strike.)
Emil Gataullin - Province

Anna Voitenko - photoset 'Iza'

Professionals.
Architecture.
1st place - Alexander Petrosyan - 'Bridge in St.Petersburg'
Genre.
1st place - Vladimir Smirnov - under the christmas tree.
Portrait.
1st place - Alexey Sorokin - Beauty

Reportage.
3rd place - Stanislav Dvir
Photo set/story/essay
Grand prix - Irina Popove - 'Another family'

enjoy.)

dad

what is that from odessa alavazo on Vimeo.

love sings for good night

a bit of epic music. sleep well. sweet dreams world!

Hammock: "Breathturn" from Hammock Music on Vimeo.

today is sorta vimeo day for me. sorry for that.
wait, what am I talking about? No apologies! This is my blog, I can rave about Justin Bieber if I want.

Goodbye to the Normals from Jim Field Smith on Vimeo.

snow touch

feel sorry for riding this winter only once. ermmm..

AVOSNOWFEST '10 from reanimatr on Vimeo.

art

This is an example of the aggressivly positive design by Funkypunky studio.
check them here

just vfx test from reanimatr on Vimeo.

projection animation test from reanimatr on Vimeo.

love sings

I wanna hurry home to you
put on a slow, dumb show for you
and crack you up
so you can put a blue ribbon on my brain
god I'm very, very frightening
I'll overdo it

Memories mean much more now since the girls and Sraka-man had left. all types of memories.
and after 2 more days in Stockholm and Editors' live gig with enormously cool Chris guitar. uh.
tday is the day of the Victory. and my parents are coming over to see me for a couple of days promising to bring some cottage cheese pancakes for me. yum yum, much better than yeastarday' buns.

memories and the sagnificance of the day mean much more. so here are some shots of the soviet time which is sorta cool.

back from the Editors' gig in Stockholm.
this city still gets me confused with its dualism.
old city is an old city which you think about each time smb pronounces the word "Stockholm". but the city center.

to me its still nothing but the smaller version of London. with everything it has except may be the permanent my beloved smell and parks.
everything but just in a smaller proporcions. thats it.

still have 23 days 'til its over.
gnite.

Keep a light on those you love
They will be there when you die
Baby there's no need to fear
Baby there's no need to cry

Every little piece in your life
Will add up to one
Every little piece in your life
Will it mean something to someone?

she makes sth unbelievable to her songs. and this one sounds amazingly brilliant in acoustic and at the same time so-so different!
Love you, E.G!

privat moon

Lo-lo-love this set.
especially the 8th one - i call it moon' funeral.
Thats the way i felt tnite trying to study at 6am.
©Boris Bendiktov, Leonid Tishkov.

really want now to wake up in a sunny summer morning. somewhere in the countryside. in the middle of nowhere. surrounded by forest and so on.
when the sun shines and everything is extremely bright and wet due to dew.

i miss it.

i want smb to come and offer me to go to swim in the midnight.

Regina's best track, imho.

REGINA • Totuus Minusta from James Martin / Vim & Vigor on Vimeo.

Want to admit one of the biggest failures in my life. On friday before going to idiomatic' gig im absolutely sure checked the ISO and i thought i put the limit on 400... and for the whole evening i've been crazy about the fact that all the pics on lcd look like shit. i dont remember what i've been telling myself then but i was so aware of the fact that i set the right ISO beforehand that i didn't even check it.
and somhow near 3am i looked at files' info and saw there the tragic numbers: ISO 3200!!!
ебать!!
yeah. this is my epic fail for the last year. I've never screwed up like this. damn my awareness. thats why i have no good shots no nothing. from 5 hours. no shots. Ive reached the last stage of being a loser. congrats!
and more over it's such an inquisition to try to make anything
having only that poor red light and basic inner flash!!! miss my speedlight badly.

gnite

And I'm just standin' there, I can't say a word
'Cause everythin's just gone
I've got nothin'
Absolutely nothing
- the streets

my mind is blank. an empty room. damn, it shouldnt!
have finished my already third translation for photographer.ru
this time it was a piece of «Violence Done to the Image» from book: «The Intelligence of Evil» by Jean Baudrillard...
how i love his ideas. awesome man.

neednt say id better start thinking about our overwhelming idea with Anna.
ps. i miss home right now. dunno why. shot made in December.

remember how i saw it for the first time. 5am. february. damn great.

"I did not want to think so much about her. I wanted to take her as an unexpected, delightful gift, that had come and would go again — nothing more. I meant not to give room to the thought that it could ever be more. I knew too well that all love has the desire for eternity and that therein lies its eternal torment. Nothing lasts. Nothing."

- Erich Maria Remarque

Мир рухнул 10 минут назад. слышишь?!
прости.

Pre-last song of this night. now should make myself some turkish coffee (anyone, fancy some?) and have to sit down to work out 784 pics of the night. hope there are 20 goods.

@ Doris

it could be wrong. could be wrong.
but it could've been right. (c)

How the hell i adore live gigs. And how the hell i hate little clubs' light to work with. especially when there is no light at all.. that three red lamps above the tiny stage - it's not light at all!

surprisingly Doris has a competitive sound which is awesome. and more over Idiomatic were great. they really were! oh fuck yeah! nice to be the one to spread them around the dormitory.

i felt frustrated. i really did. and even sorta sad and upset. personal but the thing is that even three shots of whiskey didn't bring any sense.

I liked him. but i shouldn't.

Love sings. gnite.

For a good nite. Sleep well.

spring will never come to Manse city

but it will.
it definitely fucking will.
and even summer will.

tday when i was leaving the main building through the doors which lead to the roof with some picnic tables and so on, that doors that r just undo the main steps.
there are some bushes also on that roof and tday...
it was a rabbit! the real one. pretty huge... with big legs and ears. it jumped away pretty fast. but i've seen it.
It reminded me about that night that we've spent in Helsinki about a year ago with Chris. sittin through the whole nite wrapped up in a single sleepin' bag under the huge stone somewhere in the middle of a park or smth.
and something was bouncin' all the time around...rabbits i thought then...it could be.

But tday sun was shining, and the spring was just round the corner. somewhere over there. but pretty close.

and that's the second time when i fisically felt that i need my beloved hands' continuation. with my flash, and my old Gelios lenses and all that other heavy stuff packed carefully in my backpack.
i didn't miss photography that breathtakingly much during this months till this crazy man appeared.
all the hell that i've been doing as a person who takes pictures look so damn miserably now! completely drop dead.

but i will be strong. i told mum not to bring my baby here. i can do it. i promised myself.
Patos can do it better.
will see parents already in two days. dying for it.

rabbit was so nice. spring is here.

song (lyrics) of the day:
'I wish I was special
You're so fuckin' special'

after party

Feet are still moving since last night. It diserves a separate post later tday.

Happy Birthday, Guyom!
as in The Courteeners' song: We overdid it Doll!

Stages of a photographer

hell yeah.
literally true.)

live @ Doris

spent last nite again in Doris.
That's a nice place, obviously absolutely nice.
BUT.
there is one thing that i can't understand in Finland. You always have to pay some extra money for everything.
ticket for the entrance to a club - 3 euro, but it's winter so you probably have a jacket - cloakroom costs 2 more euro. as my place is in 2 minutes of walk i went there just in my cardi. economy.)

and prices for alcohol are extremaly unreasonable.
I drink only whisky and thanks god Doris has my fav Jacky Jack. but for gods sake! 6.5 euro per 50 ml.!!!!
Sorry, but i buy myself a whole litre of Jack for 25 at home.!!and ok, here it is 29.90 per 750 ml.

had two shots yesterday anyway. ve been listening to some finnish bands called The Friend (english lyrics) and Soma (?? sing only in finnish and kinda awesomly boring).
The friend rocked. really liked them. though, wth, their guitarist was playing nearly literally barefoot! ok, he was wearing socks. and its all.
another strange example of finnishness.

yeah. and then kinda DJ kinda played. nice taste though. to mix White Stripes/Snoop Dog/Daft Punk/Phoenix...
anyway was glad to hear 'If i ever feel better'...

Only one question. Why finns are so cold even on the gigs? isnt it stressful for the musicians to observe static crowed without any emotions on their faces? wheres the feedback?
i cant get it. sorry.

heading to Doris tonight again anyway. And next time there will be Idiomatic which is pretty nice and than - Bye Bye Bicycle.

one-time friend

Powerful.
UK. 2003.
British Animation Award.

'Killing Time At Home' Directed by Neil Coslett from ShortsTV Film Festival on Vimeo.

talking about procrastination.
do people really arrange their work-places?

check this link out.
© all images copyright 2006-2009 joseph o. holmes

tryin' to calm down after all that happened tday.
My ideal recepie to bring the pieces back: music, another freshly delivered Pinguin Books' stuff to read, another classic movie to watch in the night.

In a way anything that can help to avoid this. Although i like myself loads in that state.

Procrastination from Johnny Kelly on Vimeo.

short films

Old-fashioned. finnish. like the soundtrack.

Eero (2006) from Dino Mansik on Vimeo.

bad habbits

© by Jonas Bendiksen, Magnum Photos.
while staying abroad i don't switch off my laptop at all at night. got some reasons for it -

• i always set smth to download during the night
  
• i need to turn on the music in the first few seconds after wakin' up
• and i need to check hot-news and all my bookmarks in the morning in 2 minutes.
  

and today i screwed up with the last one.

"Two female suicide bombers kill at least 37 commuters in bomb attacks on Moscow tube trains"

blah-blah-blah. and here we go, briefly checking bbc and cnn pages, grabbing the phone and trying to recollect all the folks i got in M-city...calls-calls-calls-calls even more calls.
its better not to read blogs, coz ppl r going mental writing about not using subway now at all.
ppl, i may be rude and mean and egoistic in a way, but stop lying to yourself - we r not livin' in a peaceful time! sorry but not. and we can't run away from all these crap. its here but nobody knows where, when and how it will happen to you or any of your mates/relatives/lovers..

'Yes, man is mortal, but that would be only half the trouble.
The worst of it is that he's sometimes unexpectedly mortal
- there's the trick! And generally he's unable to say what
he's going to do this same evening.' (c)M.Bulgakov "Master&Margarita"

i constantly repeat it to myself (as its my favorite novel ever). we can't make anything with it. we should live. and damn, carpe diem, guys!! Capre diem!
37 already died today in M-city due to those two bombs.. and i doubt that they felt happy and thankful on the last second of their lives. pretty sure their minds were full of daily routine and boring plans of monday morning for the next 5 hard-working days.

since the morning im only listenin' to 65daysofstatic. those guys r only possible to get my feelings back together and dont let me step back again.

pray for those victims. thats all we can.

upd.

will just copy and translate the post from lj.
(c) picture by Leonid Tishkov.

Wont miss the whole but still. another amazing event currently in Moscow-city which i dont have a chance to reach.
Yeap, im talking about '8th Moscow Photo-Biennale'.
which as usual impresses with its scale. And this time it means that for the next 4 months on tens of spots throughout the city people will talk about photography, will listen about photography on opened masterclasses, will watch movies about photography/photographers, will represent books about the same stuff. its all about art in Moscow for the next few monthes. damn it.

And as a nice tradition it will have some through inner subjects. In 2010 it's declared to be Vive la France! ('bout anything french in case it is the year of France in Russia), 'Retrospectives' (well, its clear - 'bout classics) and 'Prospects' (about teens and other youngsters, probably hipsters but i hope it wont be so at least in photography...)
So, here are my 5 choices of absolut 'must see' this time. If you can just catch the moment not to feel sorry later.

1. On the very first day of the bienale 'Moscow' house of photography' will spread its main trump - Henri Cartier-Bresson - the founder of the main European photoagency "Magnum", the greatest invisible photographer ever, the culprit of world's popularity of 'Leica' cameras and of the photojournalism' erection into the rank of true art. So, catch it as its on til 18.04
   
2. Rena Effendi - Her work focuses on themes of urbanization, post-conflict societies, and the oil industry’s effects on people’s lives. In 2004, Effendi was a winner of the “Fifty Crows” International Fund for Documentary Photography competition. In 2005 she was selected to participate in the World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass and recieved honourable mention in National Geographic’s “All Roads” photography competition. In 2006 Effendi was a winner of the Getty Images Editorial Photography Grant and Mario Giacomelli Memorial Fund award. In 2007, Effendi was chosen by the Photo District News magazine as one of 30 emerging photographers to watch. The same year, Effendi was selected as a finalist for the Magnum Photos Inge Morath award. (c) Amazingly powerful, but not to get things wrong id advice to try to read at least something about their war @ wiki for example. Her web-page to take a look at - is here. And here is one of her nice and extrimaly powerful interviews.
   
3. Elliott Erwitt - he is the real veteran of american reportage journalism who recorded the whole world's history of the last 50 years but in these latter days mostly takes pictures of dogs.
   
4. Antony Suau - He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1984 for his photographs of the famine in Ethiopia, the World Press Photo of the Year in 1987 for a photo taken during a demonstration in South Korea, the Robert Capa Gold medal in 1995 for his photos from Chechnya, and a second World Press Photo of the Year in 2008 for a photograph taken in Cleveland, Ohio depicting an officer securing a home under foreclosure at gun-point. (c) he even lived for a few years in Russia so i wish i could check him live 'coz hes about to come along.
5. And finally probably the best project on the whole biennale. Its called 'Mosaic'. Nearly nothing to say except its freackin' fresh and it was ordered by Ministry of culture of France to young photographers with the main subject - 'bout youth.
   

More over:
Leonid Tishkov & his project "Private moon. Trip to Paris",
theme project "Moscow-Paris",
Olivier Mirguet & others' project "In the night",
retrospective of Alexander Borodulin,
Francoise Huguier who's both a fashion and good doc. phorographer,
Valery Shekoldin - amazing russian photojournalist who knows how to get together the funniest and the saddest aspects of soviet times,
common excebition "Ten photographers. Sweden. 1958-2008",
Pierre Boulat' retrospective,p
and even Henry Cartier-Bresson's widow - Martina Frank.

amazing set. wanna be there. but screw you guys, i need to be here too.

some disadvantages of being far from home

точно пропускаю одно интересное событие. и уже не одно.
с 30 марта по 4 апреля в доме кино aka Родина, что в Петербурге, пройдёт фестиваль-не фестиваль, но в общем четырёхдневный показ музыкальных фильмов.
Когда вместе сходятся такие два великих искусства как музыка и кино - коментарии обычно излишни.

Def gonna miss one awesome event. and it's not the first one already.
30, march - 04, april in 'House of cinema' aka 'Motherland', which is in Saint-Petersburg, will take place smth like festival (but not really).. anyway, 4 days of perfect future-length music-movies.. watching live shows on a big-big-big-full screen, is there anything better?

Программа следующая/ Line up includes:

• Blur: No Distance Left to Run. by Dylan Southern. UK. 2010 (Blur)
  
• Another Version of the Truth: The Gift. USA. 2009 (Nine Inch Nails)
• Adelia, I Want to Love: by Vincent Moon. France. 2009 (Mogwai)
  
• Burning: by Vincent Moon. UK. 2009 (Mogwai)
  

check it www.museekfestival.ru/en

Как истинная леди, должна сообщить, что сезон скидок - это ад.

Предчувствуя волну негодования и порицания, скажу лишь, что я терпеть не могу то, что называется window shopping. Процесс бесцельного хождения по любому торговому центру без цели, но при деньгах меня раздражает получше любого ковыряющегося в носу человека.

Кроме того, наверное главное достижение последних трёх дней заключается в том, что я начала думать прежде чем делать что-либо, касающееся окружающих меня людей. Во время weekend' шоп-тура Беллы и Машы, я терпеливо таскала их пакеты и вещи, советовала что-то, и главное - не ныла!! Не мешала им получать удовольствие, и быстро научилась убеждать себя, что такие мелочи друзьям простить можно. Рада.

Скучаю по курице в терияки и рису с овощами на пару.

Том подарил бутылку виски.
Спасибо.
Люблю виски. теперь на случай экстренных ситуация у меня есть ответ.

Всё же, лёжа в кровати удобнее всего вечером писать посты.

Почему люди так бояться показаться смешными? Всё время одёргивают себя и других, предостерегают. Выдумывают себе нелепые оправдания не делать то, не совершать это.
особенно сильно это у нас в России развито. Возможно, виной тому то, что я называю "ген СССР", ген железного занавеса, холодной войны. Да как угодно называйте.
Люди привыкли думать о мнении окружающих, а не о себе. Что там было: октябрята, пионерия, комсомол, партия, Сталин-Ленин-Маркс?! Жуёшь жвачку - получи общее собрание. с выговорами и полным промыванием костей. и так далее.
Ну а сегодня это приобрело просто другую форму. И это не привело к скромности, нет. Наоборот, сегодняшние мои знакомые и просто люди на улице, привыкли к неизвестно откуда взявшемуся пониманию того, что "ты самый крутой" и тебе не может быть дела до окружающих.
Наблюдая за финнами с первой своей поездки сюда в 13 (кажется) лет, замечаю сразу лишь одно - человек как индивид - превыше всего. Далее личность, её уникальность и так далее. Но главное просто человек - его жизнь. Дар не сопоставимый ни с важностью демократии, гражданского общества или кол-ом нефтедолларов на душу человека.
Любой человек, будь то школьник- студент-гламурная дива-женщина с метлой-бабуля с лыжными палкам: у них у всех на одежде болтаются светоотражатели разных форм и цвета. Дорожки и дороги посыпаются не песком и солью, а мраморной крошкой, что позволяет даже на велике ездить круглый год. Да, светофоры на перекрёстках долгие и перераспредиляют каждый поток а не по два, как у нас, на перекрёстках. И только очень спешащий человек осмелиться даже при полном отсутствии машин перейти на красный цвет. Все стоят и ждут. И даже если ты пойдёшь под машину, тебя вряд ли собьют, т.к. они здесь соблюдают скоростной режим.
А ещё, им наплевать на то, как кто выглядит, помыл ли он голову или может быть он вообще не причёсывался с самого утра?! О их свободе взглядов говорит хотя бы популярность тапок crocks!
И так не только тут. Так во многих странах, уж за это я могу поручиться: плавали-знаем.
И дело тут не в правительстве и не в режиме.
Всё дело в людях.
И только в них.
Что они хотят от этой жизни, какие у них цели и так далее. На что они согласны а на что нет.
В общем, всё дело лишь в том, что ты хочешь, а не что хотят от тебя другие.
И если это не противоречит закону, морали, и не вредит другим. То ты всё делаешь правильно.

Эксперимент по уживанию с незнакомыми людьми и изучения себя как индивида началось.
Спокойной ночи.

Ваша Z.

Первый вопрос, который мог возникнуть и таки возник у меня: накой всё это?
Пожалуй, оставлю его в разряде риторических.

Знакомить кого-то, кому вздумается читать этот блог с собой целенаправленно не буду. Постепенно как-нибудь справлюсь.

Почему 5 месяцев и что менять?!
Я жила в couple of стран и это уже превратилось в привычку. В этот раз место моего обитания не Лондон (1.5 года на один город - хватит наверное.)) а всё куда прозаичнее и ближе в географическом отношении - центральная Финляндия, город Тампере.
Справка: население около 250 тыс. душ. Климат неумеренно холодный зимой - на момент написания поста за окном минус 24. Люди - дружелюбные, но скромные и не улыбающиеся. Facilities: тренажёрный зал, комната, кухня, сауна, плазма, вай-фай, университет и центр города в 7 минутах оба. Иностранные соседи повсюду и ещё 4 этажа таких же.

Сроки: 11.01.10 - 11.06.10

Warning:
в блоге могут пресутствовать нецензурные слова, содержание философского, бабского и политического характера.

Ваша, Z.
Current playlist: F.Sinatra - Over and over.