alterBp: Reloaded

After a long while, I'm finally getting some inspiration again.

It might be a surprise to some of you, but all the previous photos on this blog so far (with the exception of the ones from Szombathely) were taken with a broken little point-and-shoot camera borrowed from my friend. I had to, literally, tie the camera to the tripod with a pair of shoelaces. And I'm not joking.
It wasn't designed for low-light photography at all, either, so the majority of the time was spent trying to figure out ways to get the camera to do what I wanted.


In early March, however, something happened that I have been waiting for for well over 2 years: my first ever DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) camera has finally arrived, all the way from the UK. :-)
It's not some thousand-dollar professional body of course, and I only have the cheap kit lens for it - but that little mirror in there will already make such a huge difference that from now on the quality of the photos on this site will depend solely on my skills (or the lack thereof), rather than what could be done with the camera.


Ever since the person most important to me in my life has been taken away, I've lost all motivation and will to live, which is why the blog has been dead for close to two months now. Now however, I'm starting to feel like at least the inspiration is starting to trickle back behind my eyes. :)

I'm starting to feel less and less like I know who I am, where my life is going, and whether or not there is any point in continuing it.
At least I know I'm not alone with that.

Why do I only feel alive when I'm balancing on the threshold between life and death 11 stories up?...

"Why does it feel more real when I dream than when I am awake?..."

My new record...

...25 floors.

Puny little highrises, and a cute little toy tram...

To be continued.

Together we stand... divided we fall

Because of the things that happened in the past few weeks, I haven't taken a single photo since I returned to Budapest, so here are some shots from recent months.

Do you know what it's like when the girl you love is taken by her parents, quite literally interrogated (about you, her, and every little detail that is really no one else's business), told a bunch of lies about you, then put on an airplane to be taken to the other side of the continent so that you may never see her again? Without even being able to say goodbye... Then a few weeks on you get an email from her, basically saying "we'll never see each other again" and that we better pretend like we never even knew each other..

Moral of the story: don't let anyone get too close... except those you want to beat the shit out of.

Back in November, a British professional photographer sent me a message saying he will be coming to Budapest soon, and I seem to be the only Urbexer around. I agreed to meet him and show him some interesting places - these ended up being the insides of the Elizabeth and Liberty bridges (although we had a lot more planned, but time was short).

Of course, he had a proper camera - and this right here, is the first photo I've ever taken with a DSLR. :-)

At the top of the bridge, Andy successfully got himself stuck in a hole in the most noticable place possible. He could only move one arm... but he wasn't trying to free himself with it :-)

We were still inside Elizabeth bridge when the city was suddenly obscured by thick, magnificent fog.
A foggy night in the city is one of the most melancholic, disturbing, and depressing things one can experience on this planet. I LOVE it.

There were even a few photos of me taken this time :)

by Andy / uselesspsychic

Welcome to Budapest...please watch out for falling objects locals

by Andy / uselesspsychic

I can't swim at all, by the way..

Elizabeth bridge is a luxury residence for arachnids. No wonder, with all the decoration lighting attracting dinner directly into their 'living room' :)

We were right at the top of Liberty bridge when I noticed a drunken group of four blokes being loud and yelling stupid bullshit on the pavement below. All of a sudden, without any warning, one of them simply pulls his fly open and starts pissing right there in the middle of the sidewalk!
I thought I'll see if I can give the asshole a little scare, so I yelled down to him:

STOOOOP  PISSIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN!!

I've often yelled this sentence out the window of abandoned downtown buildings, almost always resulting in hilarious shows of the 'suspect' looking around in panic, and then running off as if he was being chased.
This time though, I made a big mistake. Normally, you can't see a thing looking up at the top of the bridge from the pavement, thanks to the glow of the street lights. But this time, the thick fog, reflecting the light of the city, provided a nice golden backdrop for my silhouette...

One of the dumbasses noticed me right away, and stood there in shock and awe for all of 2 seconds, before reaching in his pocket for his cellphone. I thought he was going to take a picture, so I quickly pulled back inside the steel structure - only to watch him start dialing...

Not only does he piss on the sidewalk, he then goes and sets off the same expensive shitstorm that happens every time one of those self-important people climb up here, who want the whole world to stop what they're doing and watch them turn themselves into a digusting patch of bloody organs. Firetrucks have to be deployed to try and get the bastard down, and the whole bridge has to be closed lest someone's nice car gets squished by a 180 pounds of Dumbass.

I yelled over to Andy, "We have to leave FAST!", then we both started hurrying down the arms of the bridge in opposite directions. I walked down towards the middle of the bridge, while he walked directly above the heads of our dear jackasses.

As soon as I reached street level, I quickly hurried to the other side so they don't see and recognize me. Andy soon appeared, and as he walked towards me, I saw the first patrol car arriving behind him. The jackasses were still all looking up at the sky, wondering where the hell we went. They had no idea at all that we've just escaped from right above their empty heads. :)


By the time we walked over to the Pest side, there were already four police cars on the bridge, soon to be joined by two firetrucks and a police boat equipped with a large spotlight. They used it to scan the bridge up and down, while more police cars were driving around the neighbouring areas, with pigs scouting as if they were looking for a bank robber at least. Liberty bridge was just a big blur of pretty, pretty flashing blue lights :-)

I said goodbye to Andy and walked back to the bridge, where the cops were just about to give up the search. The blue lights were disappearing off the bridge one by one, and soon even the last of the firetrucks left. I walked across the bridge in the thick, beautiful fog. Only dim little specks of light could be seen from the neighbouring Elizabeth bridge.
As I was standing there taking pictures, a girl stopped next to me on a bicycle, grinning at me.
She wasn't from Hungary so we resorted to English, but we had a nice conversation - she said she's never seen fog like that before, and was amazed at the sight. Her name was Katharina - she was from Poland, and initially only came here to study. But she fell in love with Budapest so much that she's decided to move here, and change her name to Katalin. :-)

This makes it even more obvious that the only people who think Budapest is an ugly place and want to leave it behind are the people who were born here - right into the capital of Europe's most unhappy, depressed nation, where everything that was once pretty gets graffitied over and demolished, and everything that still is, will just be sold by the gram by our corrupt politicians. Perhaps it is time to realize that our city is one of Europe's most beautiful cities, and it should be our goddamn duty to preserve it and make sure it stays that way. But instead, the most memorable entities of our country are still our empty-headed politicians and all the crazy shit they say and do to embarass our entire nation. It's time to stop arguing about your political beliefs and which stupid party or politician is better than the other, and realize that you're just picking between liars, thieves and dictators. No egoistic, power-hungry Big Brother figure is going to dwarf 1100+ years of history with his bickering. This is Hungary, god damn it, not Orbánia, not Gyurcsány's Land, not a "People's Republic", and most of all not - yet - Airstrip One.


Now that we brought politics up for the first and last time, it's time for something a lot more meaningful: abstract art. :)

Goodbye... "Angel".

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)