Egypt Luxor Cairo

Happy New Year

Walker Evans:Views from the train

Reading pailroad Car on Elevated track Above yard DP68743




Railroad Crossing for Fortune DP68377



Along the Right of Way DP68746

Paul Fusco RFK Funeral train

http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/magazine/20080601_RFKTRAIN_FEATURE/index.html#section1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG4vJxi9Kis

Thes, Belgrade, Podgorica 15,16,17,18/10/08

Finally this is the end of the Balkan project. During this process I realized how difficult is to make an idea photo. I don't feel that I succeeded to define "The Balkans: Area and People"

I traveled from Greece-Thessaloniki to: Romania-Bucharest,Timisoara
Bulgaria-Sofia,Pleven,Stara Zagora
Serbia-Belgade,Nis
Montenegro-Podgorica
Turkey-Istanbul,Edirne
FYROM-Skopje
The borders in that area changed many times during the years and even now in 2008 has been changed (Kosovo).

The area is influenced from the Byzantine and Ottoman period. For this reason in that area you can find Kebab, baklava and you can hear turkish words such as "Ayntea".

Bulgaria is developing slowly,
Romania wants to be modern. The living expenses are too high. National art museum exhibition about Greek Post-Byzantines icons.
Serbia tries to earn the lost time from the last two wars in ex-Yugoslavia. Serbians confront the racism from the Europe and feel sad about that.
Montenegro-Podgorica an ex-Serbian province and now Independed state trapped into Russian investments.
Greece ...........
FYROM-Skopje............
Turkey- Istanbul is a cosmopolitan city. International Sculpture congress , Tourists and cool nightlife.

Balkan Train routes

Balkan Peninsula.


Similarities and diferences in:

Landscapes, People.

Symbols, Ideas.


What comes out from this project?
Is something new or interesting in traveling around Balkans by train?
Why not to travel By car, By bus, By feet?

Historical there is old network for trade reasons?

When did establish the first railway in Balkans? From where to where?

Why I choose to work that project? Do I find something that make me feel creative and happy about?

How am I going to present that? My first thought is a book. I need to make the structure of the book. This is the second part of this project and is also too difficult to proceed.

I want:
a book cover
Sections/chapters
Themes
stories.

I really enjoyied this project, I push myself to contact with people and reveal their stories.


Bucharest 12/10/08

061008 Bucharest Istanbul

Business Between Romania (Buchurest),Turkey (Istanbul)

Istanbul 06/10/08

TEDIdeas Worth spreading

James Nachtwey's TED Prize wish video

I Changed my 3rd plan: Thess, Bucharest , Belgrade, Thess

I left from Thessaloniki Friday at 00:09 26th to Bucharest and I arrived there at 19:30. Despite my intention to travel at 27th to Istanbul I changed my mind yesterday to go to Belgrade. I got the train from Gare du Nord at 21:40 to Belgrade. The Wagon was full of passengers and this impressed me. The half of these got off to Timisoara ( we arrived to Timisoara 04:35 next day 27th) and the others to Belgrade (10:40 next day). After thought, I explained to myself that yesterday it was Friday night and these passengers were students and employees got to their homes. Romanians got off the train to Timisoara. Serbians to Belgrade that work to Bucharest. Romania from 2007 is in European Union and many Serbians go there for business which is connected to EU.

Now from Belgrade I will end my 3rd attempt "crossing the Balkans countries by train" to Thessaloniki, Greece ( 22:20).

As I said in my last report Romania is the new leader on the Balkan Flexipass train ticket. Romania tries to have a European profile but needs more effort for it. Concerning this, Greece is in EU 27 years but the European profile of Greece is not so obvious. Firstly, for political reasons (corruption) and secondly because Greece didn't has borders with the EU, except from sea.(From 2007 there is land connections with Bulgaria and in extent with Romania and the rest Europe). Therefore I realized that there are common things in many tasks between Greeks and Balkans (Serbians, Bulgarians, Romanians, Turkish) for example the way of leaving. Despite the Balkan peninsula is a part of Europe, it is different from the rest Europe and in this period wants to make a modern "European profile".

Finally, I could say that The Balkan area is "an old" part of Europe very important to Europe and in nowadays tries to become the "new part" of Europe.

Belgrade 270908

PS. The map on the title link is:
Map from "Stanford's Compendium of Geography and Travel: Europe" Volume 1, 1899.

Photos from 2nd attempt. Plan for the 3rd attempt. Thess Belgrade Istanbul Thess 11 12 13 14 0908

IMG_0129.Pompan is Serbian from Nis and he is train driver, he is 46 yrs old. He is married for 22 yrs and he has two children.

IMG_1163. Andreas, from Cyprus, he studies Maths in U.K. He flew from Nicosia to Athens and from there he got the train to Belgrade through Thessaloniki. His Final stop is UK but first he will stop in Novi Sad, Budapest, and Amsterdam.

IMG_1180. Serbians employees work to the national rail company for more than 16 years. They locked the carriage from Thessaloniki to Tabanovce (borders between FYROM and Serbia) and we couldn’t go to the next carriage. After many questions they answered rude that is for passengers’ protection .Radovan is the name from the guy on the right.

IMG_1192. Marta, from Cordoba, Andalucia. She traveled with her friend by train to Europe. They have interail train ticket. From Barcelona flight to Rome and from there they got train to Brindisi and boat to Patras Greece. From Patras they wanted to pass across Greece and Serbia and to get to Amsterdam.

IMG_1329. Erhan, a Turkish student 23 yrs old. He bought an interail train ticket to go to Montpelleir for erasmus program to Montpellier University. He studies Economic science.

IMG_1413. Mr Hambos Greek from Russia. He passed the Black sea by boat (СОУИ- Russia) to Trabzon (Turkey) and from there to Istanbul by bus. His last stop was Athens.

IMG_1383. Taka is Japanese, he lives in Tokyo. He flight from Tokyo to Ankara and by train to Istanbul. He has interail train ticket and he wants to travel around Europe by train. This was his second time in Greece. His next stop is Athens.

Serbian landscape is full of wheat fields. Close to the railway lines there are enterprises selling second hand cars and cars’ spares. The villages and the people look poor. Energy areas one can see not only in Serbia but also in Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey and Greece.

Vegetable gardens are common in Serbia and Bulgaria. Religious buildings there are in any Balkan country and more specific: Mosques in FYROM and Turkey, Orthodox Christian Churches in Serbia and Greece. Also is interesting the new colourful buildings that create new cities close to Istanbul Turkey.

In my third trip I will focus on the people. Now I know that is difficult to define what is Balkan. So from now on, my main aim is to find what routes the passengers use to get to their destination. Some of them use interail train ticket or Balkan Flexipass train ticket. For this reason now I am interesting more to see from where these people are coming and where they are going. From my last trip to Istanbul from Belgrade I realised that a lot of Romania people use Balkan Flexipass train ticket. The Greek rail company replied to me that this ticket has established in 01 01 1997 and since 2007 the leader country was Greece but from 2008 leader is Romania. In this trird attempt I will follow this route: Thessaloniki – Bucharest – Istanbul – Thessaloniki .

Plan for the 2nd attempt.Thessaloniki/Belgrade/Istanbul/Thessaloniki

In this second trip I will try to find out "The Balkans". I will focus on:

People's behaviour( costumes, attitudes)/Religion/Landsscape ( rural, Urban).

Furthermore, I want to find out the reasons that they travel from one country to the other ( Balkan)-Business, Religious. What is the most common route for the Balkans? West to East or North to South? Is there any Metropolitan center for the Balkan Penisula? Religious or civil?

These are my aims.

1st.Major Project "Balkan Flexipass ticket"

Balkan_20080830_0294.jpg .The train is fumigating when passes the Romania’s borders, Giurgiu Nord

Balkan_20080830_0295.JPG. Gas Pipeline , Romania

Balkan_20080830_0297.JPG.Victor and marios, Thessaloniki Bucharest

Balkan_20080830_0299.JPG. Alexandru, Bachelor in Management. University of Sheffield in Thessaloniki

Balkan_20080830_0300.JPG. Ruse, is the last stop in Bulgaria’s border. Is a big city with interesing history.

Balkan_20080831_0302.JPG. Sorella Romanian travesty, From Bucharest to Giurgiu Nord Without ticket and passport. At the Romania’s border she had been forced to get off the train

For someone that doesn’t know or remember my idea for the major project is to travel by train across The Balkan countries. I decided to do that because I live in one of these countries and I wanted to find out similarities, firstly between people, secondly between landscapes and finally between cities. From my first research I found out that there is a train ticket that called «Balkan Flexipass train ticket and you can use it to the following countries: Serbia, FYROM, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey and Greece. Since there is this ticket I felt that might be a good link about the Balkan project. I wondered that some people might use this ticket to travel around Balkan for financial reasons or for travelling or for other purposes and I wanted to look for that.

But how can I avoid making a photo travelling project?

And is this really my major project?

In the beginning I sent a letter to the Hellenic railway company asking information about Balkan Flexipass train ticket but since now I haven’t any reply.Despite this negative fact, on 30th of August at 00:09 from Thessaloniki I took the train to Bucharest, the trip lasted 19 hours. I did the first trip as a test for having my own opinion about this situation and to find out ways to do this project. I spent my trip with three Romanian guys who they were going back to their homes. Alexandrou was student in Thessaloniki and the reason for his last visit in Thessaloniki was for the graduation ceremony.Victor is an Economical immigrant who works in Chalkidiki (close to Thessaloniki) in a resort hotel (Sani Resort Hotel). He works to Sani resort hotel six years now (from April to August). And finally the last one is Marios a peligram who spent two weeks in Holy Mount Athos .

During my first trip I realised that it’s not so difficult to take photos of the passengers since you spent a lot of time with them. In this carriage there are 7 or 8 cabins with 4 people in average. I am looking for a story but …..Where is the story? I know that Romanians, Bulgarians, Serbians are visiting often Thessaloniki for the reasons that I mentioned above but I don’t feel that I need to buy this train ticket for recording this situation.

I wonder if it’s better to stay next to the train cashier desk and looking for people who are buying this Balkan Flexipass ticket and asking them to make their portrait. This it might links to the big Balkan community which is located in Thessaloniki.

I want to combine these two ways, the portraits and the train’s photos. Because from the portraits I can have the anthropology issue and from the train’s photo the landscapes and the situation of the trip. I don’t know if this could work into so short period (One Month). I would be pleased if you could give me any comment.

MYKONOS 120708

Sound and Image

Mykonos

What about the island of Mykonos?
Mykonos is a famous island for celebrities. From my first visit 15 years ago I was impressed by the packed alleys during the nights, and how different the daily life is in the mornings.
I focused on the island’s environment and more specific to areas where there are posters, adverts and signs. What about them? Financial the whole Island is depending on tourists’ visits. So in every free space beside the roads or in the urban areas you can see signs, advert posters, in order to inform tourists of stores or events that take place on the island. These posters since they are colorful consequently create a total different urban space that often is kitsch and dirty from the scratched papers. Despite the characteristic architecture of this Cyclade Island it is obvious how awful it has became the “Chora’s” area from the wires which are set above people’s heads and homes.
Parties are the main way to have fun and to enjoy yourself in Mykonos. Usually the first parties begin early in the afternoons at the beach bars and continue onto the music clubs later. Young tourists get to parties by motorcycles. They drink and dance to the rhythm of the Dj’s music and consume a lot of alcohol which is one of the reasons for fatal accidents. In the beginning my idea was to take photos of the posters and to make comments about the Island’s environment and how posters affect the island’s look. Furthermore, my intention was to find out about the island’s lifestyle and tourists’ day life. I photographed during the day while I was walking in the “Chora” and even when I was on the buses going to the beaches.The photos are in colour because it is easier to give the feeling that this island is a “party island” full of colours and music. Some of them are blurred and that didn’t bother me since my intention was to document this situation in every place that I visited. I avoided photographing people because I wanted to give their existence through the sound. In addition, this approach would emphasize, firstly the human absence from the island’s mornings day life and on the other hand these large amount of adverts consequently means a lot of visitors to these parties.

Concerning the sound I used the Olympus digital voice recorder WS-300M. I recorded the environment sound from many parties in order to fill with sound the slideshow. I was interested not only in the music but also how the people sang, screamed and spoke to each other during the party.

The interesting part of this project was how this story can be told by combining sound and image. It is general true that both these elements can express an idea more powerfully and successfully. This challenged me a lot since I wanted the human absence of my photos to be covered from the sound and so to support my idea. The story is divided into three parts. Firstly, there is an introduction that states the place and the signs of the “Chora’s” space. Secondly, the posters for the parties which can be found in any place around the island and finally a comment about “Chora’s urban” environment which is full of wires.

The narration is a dialogue between me (the photographer) and my friend that visited the island of Mykonos.

I produced this video from the Windows Vista Movie maker and the sound process from NCH Wave Pad Sound Editor. Finally, from Windows Vista DVD Maker I burnt the DVD.


2008-08-27
Greece, Thessaloniki
Stamatis Zoumpourtikoudis

RON HAVIV / Blood and Honey: A Balkan War Journal
http://photoarts.com/haviv/bosnia/test.html

Ariadni Little Green Sea

Rea and George to Nea Plagia

Bus driver from Myconos to Elia 140708

Myconos 150708 Remezzo

Pavlos and Stamatis Holidays in Myconos 12 17 07 2008

Pavlos in Myconos 160708

Myconos's sky

Elephant and Castle 100608

Major project "Balkans" 070608

Blackheath Common Fun Fair I