vladpetri

Perioada de desfasurare: 8-20 februarie 2010

Structurat in 7 sedinte, pe parcursul a doua saptamani, workshopul este adresat tuturor celor interesati de experimentarea fotografiei pe film si imbina sedintele teoretice cu lucrul practic in locatii si practica de laborator foto.

Mai multe detalii le gasiti pe siteul cursphoton

I was travelling for 3 weeks in Syria. The trip started with a train from Bucharest to Istanbul. Then I took a flight to Amman (Jordan). I entered Syria by car (with a shared taxi). Most of the time I stayed in Aleppo and Damascus. I’ve also been travelling to Homs, Latakia, Palmyra, along the Euphrates on the east, and in the mountain region. I’ve made the road back from Aleppo to Turkey, and then I took back the same train to Bucharest.

Syria is a true experience, rich in visual and olfactive flavours. Neighbouring Turkey, Irak, Jordan, Israel, Palestinian territories, Lebanon and the Mediterranean sea, the country has green plains, mountains, a small coastline, a lot of desert and a great river running through the eastern part. It has a population of around 22 millions made up mainly of sunni muslims, but with significant alawite, shia, christian and druze minorities.

Here is a selection of the photographs i took during the trip along with a slideshow and some 1min shortfilms.

I wish to thank all the people i met during this trip which were very kind and helpful: Andrew Mazotta, Todd Biggs, Hasan from Damascus (such a great dinner!), the Kurdish people from the Damascus hotel, Claude (who crossed us the border to Lebanon with his great 60s Citroen), Dominik Rohmus, Bakri Rawwas (for his help and great friendhip), Osama-the hostel manager, Zeca Vidal, the Italian friends, Joachim and Joka, Hirofumi Sekiguchi, Nadine from Homs, her family and friends, Alexander and Evgeniy from Russia and the list goes on… and especially Neli, for being with me on this trip.

It was morning and the air was filled with smoke and good smells from the grill - Aleppo
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Damascus, the entrance at Azem Palace
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On the streets of old Damascus
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Damascus, in front of the Umayyad Mosque. It was Christmas Day and one man dressed in Santa Clause was taking photos with the locals

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One guy from Damascus invited us for a cup of tea and showed us some photos of his family and a film with his father coming back from Mecca
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Near our hotel in Damascus - the street was empty after a very busy day
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Balcony naked-sale, Damascus
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Spicy area - Damascus
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Aleppo
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Almonds, nuts, pistacho, seeds… Aleppo
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Raw meat - Aleppo
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Butcher’s area - Aleppo
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A boy is resting after a long bussiness day. Most of the shops in the markets of Syria are family-based, and young boys are helping their fathers on the job- Aleppo
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Raw meat and women clothes - Aleppo
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Spices alley, Damascus

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 Aleppo
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Aleppo
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Washed-out photos of young women in an old bakery - Damascus _________________________________________________________________________________________

Damascus

A group of iranian shia muslims were celebrating Ashura (the mourning of the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad)  in the Umayyad Mosque - Damascus
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Aleppo
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Aleppo
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Hasan is playing football with his daughter in their apartment near Damascus. We met him in downtown and he invited us for dinner at his house.
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Children play near the entrance of the Citadel - Aleppo
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The city of Aleppo seen from the Citadel. Aleppo is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world. It knew human settlement since the 11th millennium B.C.
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Homs
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Aleppo
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It is friday and it’s football-day for the children of Aleppo
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Damascus
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Tailor’s area - Aleppo
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Aleppo
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Bakri, an english language student and his good friend Peter, a swed who was studying Arabic in Aleppo. We met Bakri in Aleppo and he took us to his home where we had tea and a very nice time
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Everybody sells, buys or is in a rush - Aleppo

Downtown
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Homs
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Damascus
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Lunchtime in a restaurant in Aleppo
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Aleppo
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Aleppo
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Aleppo
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Palmyra
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Aleppo
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Aleppo
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A boy was carrying goods on the alleys of the souq

It’s bubbletime - Damascus
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At the Great Mosque of Aleppo
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Beetween the ruins of Resafa. Known as Sergiopolis in Roman times, the city is now an archaeological site
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It was early morning, just after the sunrise and the way to the Palmyra Castle was paved with golden light
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Resafa
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Two men were chasing their camel on the desert of Palmyra
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I saw this man twice, in the evening, riding his donkey in the market of Aleppo. Maybe he was on his way back home
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The ‘rider’ was serving a kebab, so he had to be sure that his donkey won’t run away - Palmyra
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Goat reunion - Palmyra

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One man came with 3 birds on the beach. He threw them in the water, serving food and waiting for their siesta - Latakia

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Palmyra Castle
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3 beduin kids came to greet us, in the desert, near Palmyra town. The only non-arabic words they knew were “merci” and “yes”. So we had a long merci-yes talk. They were taking care of their family herd.
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A world map near-by the reception of the “New Tourist Hotel” in Palmyra
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For more photos on Syria you can watch the following slideshow:

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I see my work autobiographical, focused on the visual dialogue beetween photography and time. I work with different media, mostly photography and video.
 
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