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Sunday 28 November 2010

Red sludge

This Friday, we took a 100-km road trip to a small town near the Slovakian border.


Our target: an abandoned alumina factory that closed down in 1996.


The compound contains several large industrial buildings, most of which are completely empty.



Only a control room and what seemed to be an office remained from this huge, gutted factory. The control room sat in one of the top corners of the roughly 5-story-tall, massive empty space. Well hidden, it was the only part of the building that was not stripped down to the last screw - it was locked away instead. All the doors leading to it were welded down, glass replaced with steel.




Obviously, we walked through the reinforced concrete without a problem. :)




The room-sized instrument panel was full of cryptic controls and readouts, belonging to machines that no longer existed. There were readouts that printed waveforms onto strips of paper like seizmographs.
The last pieces of data from the very last workday, the very last breaths of this monstrous factory complex, from over 15 years ago, were laid out in front of us on the dusty floor.




The cold winter breeze coming through the broken windows was moving the paper strips around as if they were a part of nature, like leaves on a tree - not an endless stream of cold statistics, precisely recorded by a machine, that became meaningless sometime in the nineties.


The constantly moving strip of paper was not easy to capture with the little compact camera - it would have been practically impossible, if it wasn't for the 35W halogen light bulb I acquired, fed from a huge battery.
The professional(-ly hacked together) light gear allowed me to capture this mechanical death certificate...


And art... Art is everywhere.




As we climbed the fence again and were back outside the compound, we realized that it's actually not raining - but snowing. The first snow of 2010 caught us inside an abandoned factory building at 3 AM. :)



We began the long journey back home, but after we passed a town or two the little snowfall pretty much turned into a blizzard. We drove most of the way in deep snow - with summer tires of course...
For quite a while we drove without lights, because we could see a lot further this way - with the lights on, all we could see was snowflakes coming at us, and about 5 meters of the road. Which is not very comforting.

It was really quite magical to glide through the fantastic, pure white landscape, with nothing but the faint glow of the Moon breaking the darkness.


On my way home in the frosty morning light, I happened upon something quite unusual: a hole with the bones and remnants of a strange animal I couldn't quite identify. I have no idea how, and why it got there - and once it got there, who dug it up, why did he leave it there, and how'd he know it was there in the first place?


Vajon hány elásott whatdisznó vár Budapest utcái alatt a feltámadásra?  :D


 
And finally, this photo was taken at sunset, just before - or during? - the cheapwine-induced alcohol-poisoning throw-up ritual. I don't even remember taking it.




U.I.: A what-disznóTM az alterBp Corporation névjegye vagy bejegyzett védjegye az Egybesült Államokban és/vagy más országokban. Mindennemű engedély nélküli használat 5 éves közszolgálatban elvégzendő közterületi óvszerhámozást, négyszeres életfogytig tartó szabadságvesztést, be- illetve lefejezést, puding általi halált, esetleg szigorított anális fegyházat, avagy biciklit von maga után.


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Monday 22 November 2010

The Other Side

Wandering the streets near Ferenciek square one night, I happened upon this interesting little corner.

The picture doesn't really do the atmosphere of the place justice - it almost feels like you're suddenly in a different city when you turn the corner. The street on the left is bright, clean, well-maintained, with stylish lamp posts that are already fitted with winter decoration. Then you take a few steps, and you find yourself in a dark alley full of garbage and graffiti (rubbish in three- and two dimensions, respectively), and a rather depressing, dirty little playground squeezed between two enormous firewalls.

Even the color of the light is different.


Not too far from here the 'brutally modern' building of Corvinus University will strike your eyes with a rather uncanny clash of time and design.

It's the meeting point between the very old and very new: it's the urban architecture equivalent of a cute, slim little white blondie trying to take in a 10-meter, murderous black cock... Somehow it just doesn't work. :D




I've also been wandering around Lágymányosi bridge, and since I was there I thought - why not climb it?



And, strangely for me, I've also been photographing during the daytime - hence the title of this post.



This is the "Other Side" of the spectrum of lightscapes provided by our Solar System, the side that most photographers prefer: I have to admit, it's so easy that I can see why. I find this part of the day boring, when things show their usual side - the side everyone's familiar with, when objects reveal all their details and colors, removing all the mystical uncertainty and hidden details that you need a keen eye to discover under the glow of the street light.






Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you...
lady   in   COLOR

Many thanks to the Colorful City Project! :-)



And now, for something completely different...


Have you seen the movie Trainspotting?
Many people think the way the young heroin junkies' lives are depicted in the movie is exaggerated - as they live in empty apartments they've sold all their furniture and belongings out of, and the only remaining movable thing is a mattress to sleep and shoot the next one on.
I've found it to be a bit unrealistic as well - most heroinists don't hold on to an apartment for too long. Take a look at these shots I took a few days ago in a trashed, burned old building hidden in one of the richest neighbourhoods in the city.


Home, sweet home...


I've finally succumbed to the popular "lonely chair" cliché :-)



Irony is quite harsh sometimes.


(The label reads: "Your doctor or pharmacist may help you break the addiction")


And finally, I thought it might be time to show you the source of all the sick shit on this site, and upload a self-portrait...


(for foreigners: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisabeth_Bridge)


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Monday 8 November 2010

The Return of Stencilface

After a little bit of a mental low-point, your favorite light junkie is back.

On our menu today is Szabadság híd, aka. the Liberty Bridge. If you haven't guessed already - I really like this bridge. :-)


My favorite hiding place...




At dawn, the first tram whizzed by right under me.







Just your average picture of trams. No, really.


This reminds me of Sin City...


Autumn-in-a-box



Stencilface returns.



I've been crowned!



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