Patriot’s Dream #27 Budapest, Hungary 2011

Who’d have thought Budapest would be a good place to add to this series of photos? This shirt was at a flea market in the main city park.

 ]]>

Evening Stroll Budapest, Hungary 2011

Date night on Gellert Hill in Budapest.

]]>

Leaving Stalin Budapest, Hungary 2011

This is a replica of a grandstand that once served as the pedestal for an 8-meter-tall bronze statue of Soviet party secretary, head of state and military general Stalin. The original grandstand was located in central Budapest along the route where parades were held on Communist holidays. Communist leaders would gather on the grandstand at Stalin’s feet, waving at marching crowds that were forced to cheer them and celebrate. On October 23, 1956, a crowd revolting against Soviet oppression cut the statue off at its knees and pulled it down. Stalin’s boots were left on the pedestal as a sarcastic reminder of the dictator. The communists, not able to take a hint, put down the revolution and remained in Hungary until 1989. The replica grandstand was built later in Memento Park where many of the old communist statues were moved, not to honor the communists but simply as documentation of that dark period. Originally I believed that while the grandstand was a replica, the boots were the actual ones from the original statue. But I later read that they too were a recreation.  ]]>

Photographs Not Taken “is a collection of photographers’ essays about failed attempts to make a picture.” Heck I don’t need a bunch of experts to tell me how to mess up photo ops–I do fine in that regard on my own, thank you very much. Perhaps there are in fact some pearls of wisdom in this book but I’m not going to shell out the fifteen bucks to find out. It reminds me too much of the photography exhibit I didn’t quite get to see and the song about the grunge band that got famous by refusing to sing songs, which I blogged about here some time ago.  ]]>

Watching the Watcher Budapest, Hungary 2011

The docents at the museums in Budapest were uniformly more aggressive at monitoring visitors to make sure they didn’t get into mischief than about any I’ve seen. They weren’t rude at all, but it was obvious they had their eye on you. Even though I had no designs on malice to the art or anything, it made me feel a bit paranoid after a while–l felt like I was being watched even when no one else was around.

]]>

Whistler’s Father Budapest, Hungary 2011

The genesis of the title should be obvious, but just in case it’s not, here’s the inspiration:

Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1 (a.k.a. Whistler’s Mother) James McNeill Whistler 1871

I’ve seen Whistler’s actual painting at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. I really like the colors in this painting but what I find really interesting about it is the sliver of a frame and white mat in the upper right hand corner of the painting. It’s the kind of seemingly extraneous thing you’d see by accident in a photograph (at least until Photoshop made such things easy to remove), but which painter’s would just choose not to include. So I have to wonder why Whistler bothered to actually paint it in. Perhaps it provides just the balance or tension the composition needs, without which it would fail to please; but you couldn’t prove it by me.  ]]>

Anonymous Budapest, Hungary 2011

This is a monument to a guy who called himself Anonymi Bele Regis Notarii (anonymous notary of King Bela) and who penned what is considered to be the first comprehensive history of Hungary around the year 1200. His name was later shortened to just Anonymous. So was he the original anonymous author? Could be, I can’t find any decent etymology of the word but nothing I’ve read suggests otherwise.

 ]]>

Speed #3 Budapest, Hungary 2011

A poorly executed camera panning motion on my part for this shot actually resulted in more of a feeling of motion than the previous two speed images.]]>

Speed #2 Budapest, Hungary 2011

Here’s a challenge for the engineer/scientist types out there. Given the exposure for this photograph was 1/20s, estimate the speed this bicyclist was traveling. My first calculation was 82mph. I think I need to go back and revisit my assumptions. In the meantime, Happy New Year!

 ]]>

Speed #1
Budapest, Hungary
2011

A tram approaching warp speed in downtown Budapest.