Panzano in Chianti

Futurism in Photography

After a semester of Futurist manifestos and writings, I am finding that it is coming back to haunt me, but surprisingly not in a bad way. Just when I thought I had retained just about nothing from my studies, I find that the Museo Nazionale Alinari della Fotografia, is located around the block from my apartment, just reopened after being closed all summer, and is featuring an exhibit on Futurism in Photography.

And suddenly it all came back.

It's funny to think of futurism in a photograph. After all Futurists wanted to capture movement, so isn't it ironic to use a medium that "freezes time" to express the philosophy of an entire artistic movement? Futurism was an escape from social and artistic conventions that held society down--an escape from the mentality before and during the war. The Futurists wanted no part of the past and it was evident in their work.
The exhibit is on display from September 17 to November 15th. The museum is small, intimate, and probably one of my favorite museums to date. It is serving as a reminder for everything I still need to do and more importantly a reminder of photography being what I love to do.

Cinque Terre

One of the first trips we took around Italy was to Cinque Terre. Minus the fact that I have been to Boracay in the Philippines, it is definitely one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. When you see the ocean there, you can understand exactly why there are 3 different ways to say blue in Italian.

The "five lands" are comprised of Monterosso al mare, Varnazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. We started in Riomaggiore (where the above picture was taken) where we stopped for a quick snack and cappuccino. Riomaggiore was comprised mostly of small shops and picturesque houses in a variety of colors--I thought to myself about how I could live here the rest of my life and just create things.

Next, we took the walkway called "via dell'amore" to Manarola, which we skip heading to the port town of Vernazza. There we take our first dip in the beautiful, clear blue, and extremely salty Meditteranean sea.

After lunch, we finally head to Monterosso, where we finally experience the type of beach we want minus the sand. So, to digest, we lay our towels onto the rocks and sleep as comfortably as we can with a few more dips in the sea to cool off.

And So it Begins

Arriving in Italy was an adventure in itself. I decided to fly into Rome and then take the train to Florence. I had not slept at all on my connecting flight from Dublin--I was tired, hungry, thirsty, and did not know even one word in Italian. First, I had to take a train from the airport to the main station Roma Termini, then I had to figure out where to buy a ticket and the difference between track numbers and train numbers in Italian, which wasn't really that obvious. At many points I wanted to give up because it was even more difficult to find people who spoke English.

The train took about 2 and a half hours. Luckily I was able to sleep and thankfully these Italians sitting across from me helped me out even though we had no idea what we were actually saying to each other. My next battle would be to find the hotel we were staying at for the first two nights--Hotel Villani. Basically, I traveled ill prepared and ill equipped. The only thing I did manage to do properly, was pack extremely light, but I had a crappy walking directions from Google maps and an address to get me to where I needed to go.

After walking around for 10 minutes or so getting frustrated and overheated trying to find street names, or at least something from my map to get my bearings, I came upon the Duomo. I looked up, stopped dragging my suitcase and forgot about how miserable my journey had been up to this point.Eventually I gave up. I stopped for help, but none of the directions seemed to make sense. So, I found a taxi stand, gave him the address, and relaxed. The hotel ended up being on an extremely small street that runs parallel to the Duomo. I more or less felt like an idiot, but honestly, I never would have found it, so it was better that way.

These pictures are from the hotel roof a little after I arrived. The lighting was gorgeous and these were the first pictures I took in Florence--the pictures that have reinspired me to be productive again.

Ciao from Firenze

So my Italian adventure has begun and I have been here for 3 weeks now. It is more beautiful than words can describe and I have been completely re-inspired after a summer of creating absolutely nothing. One of the things I love the most about Italy are the windows. There are so many windows on every house and they project so much light into all of the high ceiling rooms making the most picturesque scenes. I could sit at my desk all day and just stare out at Terracotta rooftops listening to the sounds of the city and trying to understand conversations with the little Italian I know and am slowly learning.

The Duomo is down the street from my apartment. It is gorgeous. I pass the Ponte Vecchio on the way to class and I go running past the Uffizi along the river. Sometimes I forget I am here to study. It feels more like a dream vacation than anything, especially when the past 2 weekends here I have travelled to Cinque Terre and Elba, sun bathed and swam in the ocean, just to come back to the cobblestone streets of Firenze.

The city makes more and more sense everyday and I am learning more and more Italian everyday, which is a great help. You'd be surprised at the amount of people who don't speak English, but it's getting easier. One of the most difficult things about the language barrier was going to the grocery store on the first day--it's hard to cook for yourself every day when you can barely read the packages. I will update again soon, now that I am beginning to organize my photos.

I Smell Like Pizza

I always forget, that even when I'm not working on a particular project, I am always working in my journal, which is where I end up getting a lot of my ideas. Saturday I went to the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art Festival in New York and I saw a lot of interesting things. I mainly went to see Sam Brown, the creator of Exploding Dog, but there was also a lot of cool stuff there I had never seen, as well as a lot of inspiration. There were so many hand made books and pamphlets, which is more or less motivating me to continue working on the 4x6 book, which I've only completed two pages for thus far. I have been meaning to scan them it, but I've been far too lazy/ busy with working at the pizzeria/ my lack of hours, which is starting to increase actually.

These are just some random, simple things I regularly do. Sometimes I just want there to be more than just text and other times I just find things in magazines that inspire me to make things up. Usually there will be more text, but these are an exception.

A Little Anti-Internet Lately

For a while now I had been considering "downgrading in technology" and getting a point and shoot digital camera, but as it was not a necessary item to obtain, it was very low on my priority list. So, while rummaging through my brother's room, since it's more or less a disaster and I probably know more of what's in his room than he does, I found his camera and decided to take it into my own care. After ripping through his room for about 45 minutes, I found the power cord and now it resides in my purse.

Already, we have experienced adventures in New Brunswick, since Chels and I moved into our new apartment on Monday (where I was asked if I know how to actually use one of these), a beach adventure in Point Pleasant (where I was told I can't be trusted with a camera), and a night of pulp action role playing (where I was a Russian assassin) and tequila shots. I am also happy to say that iPhoto and I are becoming acquainted again and it is quite lovely.

My only complaints are that the camera is extremely crappy due to poor treatment by it's previous owner. Sometimes the camera won't focus even when you hold the button down halfway, so you have to tell whoever you're taking a picture of to wait, and restart the camera until it decides to work. Also, I have many fears that the lens will decide to not open, or close one day, since it makes an awful sound when it switches into the picture taking mode. My "new" camera has character and I'm ok with that because I have a tendency to purposely take awful and stereotypical pictures when given a point and shoot anyway, so I suppose it is fitting.