Vladimir: 1912 and today

(Thanks to M for sharing this with me!) In the early 1900's, photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii developed a new and cutting edge technique for shooting color photographs. You can read about his work by clicking here, and you can see many of his color photos of turn of the century Tsarist Russia by clicking here. However, I want to point out the contrast (or lack there of) between his pictures, taken almost a century ago, and my photos, taken on June 22, 2006:

Cathedral of St. Dmitry
Photo by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, 1912

Cathedral of St. Dmitry
Photo by me, June 22, 2006

Uspensky (Assumption) Cathedral
Photo by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, 1912

Uspensky (Assumption) Cathedral
Photo by me, June 22, 2006
(Although the lighting wasn't as good
as I would have liked when I took this)

On one hand, I realize that these cathedrals were built in 1194 and 1158, respectively... and if something's been around that long, you shouldn't really expect it to change much over the space of 94 years, but just looking at the photos made me feel like I was living inside some sort of strange time warp. Hope you enjoy them. Anyway, I had decided to run down to Cathedral Square to snap some recent pics of the cathedrals, and I caught a glimpse of the Bogoroditse-Pozhdestvensky monastery, and it occurred to me that in my eleven months in Vladimir I hadn't been inside it. So, I popped on in. To be honest, it wasn't really all that interesting, although there were some intricately carved bells which I photographed...

Bogoroditse-Pozhdestvensky monastery

Bell close-up #1

Bell close-up #2

Victor Fedin photo shoot - part 3

Today I went to the Oblastnoi Dvorets Kulturni (the Regional Palace of Culture) to see Victor Fedin's photography exhibition. It made me feel pretty fantastic about having had my portrait taken by this chap. His pictures were incredible, and the images on the little pamphlet I scanned in and posted a while back don't do his work justice at all. I was quite impressed. There were all sorts of photos, from the sort that I tend to take (scenery around Vladimir) to portraits, to photos for advertisements, to images shot at modeling competitions and at theatrical performances. Very interesting, and quite impressive. [photo shoot part 1] [photo shoot part 2]

Victor Fedin photoshoot - part 2

I went and picked up my photos from my photoshoot this morning. I am feeling a little silly having spent so much money on unneeded photos (especially when I need to be saving money for things like fixing/replacing my computer, my upcoming trip to Moscow and that house I'm planning to buy...) and I totally prefer photos with scenery or friends to studio prop-shots, BUT I can justify this as helping out a friend of a friend and helping the Russian economy. And really, when am I ever going to do this ever again? I've selected three out of the whole bundle that I purchased to go online. The one at the bottom is the most absurd photo I've ever been in...

Victor Fedin photoshoot - part 1

One of my VEMZ students (one who began studying with me last semester, and who is one of my best students) has a very good friend named Victor Fedin who is a professional photographer. She has mentioned him numerous times throughout all of our classes together and when, last week, she suggested that I go for a professional photo shoot, I couldn't think of a decent reason to say no. (Well, other than I don't *need* a professional photo shoot for any reason whatsoever, but my student didn't seem to think that was a good excuse. Of course I need a professional photo shoot!) So, I agreed and went and had an absurd amount of pictures taken this morning. It was a lot of fun actually, with all sorts of interesting props and lighting effects. I really have no need for any of these pictures, but when am I ever going to have such a photo shoot ever again? Mmm, never. Unfortunately, even though I'm only getting the pictures on a disk, instead of actual hard copies, I won't be able to pick it up until Monday. So, you don't get to see any of this absurdity just yet. Instead I'm posting some images from a flyer promoting Mr. Fedin's current photo-exhibition here in Vladimir, which now I am definitely planning to go see.