BORUT PETERLIN in a rabbit hole of photography

Regular readers of my blog know well my Flower Power project that is a personal rebellion against politics and news-photojournalistic-safaris. Instead glorifying politicians I’m focusing on plants and degrading politicians on disturbing background. It was exhibited on 6th U3 Slovenian art triennial in Gallery of Modern Art in Ljubljana, which I consider a Rock and Roll achievement. Yesterday Vladimir Putin was visiting Slovenia and I’ve made this pictures of beautiful plants. I hope you will enjoy it and let Flower Power be with you.

Redni bralci mojega bloga poznajo serijo Flower Power, kjer kot osebni protest proti politiki in novičarskim-fotosafarijem, fotografiram cvetlične aranžmaje in namesto, da bi glorificiral velmožje, jih degradiram na moteče ozadje. Serija je bila razstavljena na U3 – trienale sodobne umetnosti v Sloveniji v Moderni galeriji, kar si štejem za čisti rok in rol dosežek! Včeraj je bil Vladimir Putin na obisku in naredil sem te čudovite botanične fotke. Upam, da vam bodo všeč in naj vas Flower Power spremlja.

Yesterday Zoran Thaler, a Member of the Europarliament resigned because of allegations of bribing by Sunday Times. I think it was the only proper decision to be made and I’m sure that the investigation will clarify his true motifs. If I was cooperating with some doggy lobbying company to discover their dirty game, I would definitely ask for help or if I would think that I can do it on my own, I would secretly record the conversation, or gather some other evidence on my own. Only fact that goes in behalf of Thaler is that he didn’t issue an invoice. Perhaps he is always issue late, as I am, with issuing invoices. Perhaps he had a second thought about where this is going, perhaps he was more cautious then other MP’s that were more clearly caught. The fact that he didn’t want to answer journalistic questions and he walked away, proves to me, that he knows his defense is leaking from all sides.

More Hi-Res images in my archive.

Včeraj je Zoran Thaler, poslanec evropskega parmalenta odstopil, po obtožbah o podkupovanju s strani Sunday Timesa. To je bila edina sprejemljiva poteza z njegove strani in upam, da bo nadaljna preiskava razkrila njegove prave motive. Če bi jaz sodeloval z neko mutno lobistično firmo, z namenom, da razkrijem njihovo umazano igro, potem bi vsekakor prosil za pomoč, ali če bi že mislil, da lahko zadevo sam izpeljem, bi tajno posnel pogovor ali zbral kak drug dokazni material. Edino dejstvno, ki gre v prid Thalerju, je da ni izdal računa za njegove “storitve”. Morda je vedno pozen pri izdajanju računov, kot sem tudi sam, morda ga je vest spekla in se je zavedal kam vse to vodi, morda pa je samo bolj pretkan, kot sta bila ostala poslanca, ki sta se ujela na limance. Dejstvo, da ni želel odgovarjati na novinarska vprašanja, mi govori, da se zaveda, da njegova obramba pušča z vseh strani.

PS: Jure Godler solved the mystery of missing 100.000 EUR!

In this issue of Mladina there is a creative portrait of a crew standing behind a Twitter Festival in Ljubljana, called Ljubljana Twestival 2011. For this portrait I was assigned to do a group portrait and I did that, but I was interested if I can make a more symbolic picture, so this is the result.

On Friday I’ve made this picture. I love this kind of spring / autumn light, so I take this kind of pictures. It reminds me a little on Rodchenko’s picture Girl with Leica (1934), but of course his is way better. This Rodchenko’s photograph it used to be the most expensive photograph in the world. In eighties if I remember correctly from Famu’s lessons 15 years ago. I remember that history professor asked me when did Rodchenko bought his first camera and I answered correctly. I’m not sure now, but I think it was in 1924. Rodchenko is without a doubt my role model and once I participated in a group exhibition in Berlin’s Martin Gropius Bau and in next room Rodchenko’s pictures were hanging. That I consider definitely a personal highlight of my career.

V petek sem naredil to fotko na seji občinskega sveta. Obožujem spomladansko in jesensko svetlobo in včasih ujamem to veselje v fotgrafiji. Pravzaprav takoj, ko sem videl motiv, sem se spomnil na Rodchenka in njegovo fotko Dekle z Leico (1934), a seveda je Alexandrova veliko boljša. Če se še prav spomnim lekcij s Famu akademije, je bila ta fotka v nekem trenutku osemdesetih let najdražja fotka na svetu. OK, to je bilo 15 let nazaj, tako se morda / verjetno motim. Profesor me je na izpitu vprašal katerega leta je Rodchenko kupil svoj prvi fotoaprata in odgovoril sem pravilno. Leta 1924, če se prav spomnim. Rodchenko je brez dvoma moj vzornik in za enega mojih osebnih dosežkov si štejem, da sem so moje fotke visele v berlinskem Martin Gropius Bau, v sosednji sobi pa so visele fotke Aleksandra Rodchenka.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Today there was a cleansing action in Roma settlement Dobruška vas, Slovenia. After Škocjan municipality got a new major, a plan was accepted to improve living conditions for Roma settlement. First action was to clean the Roma settlement and municipality supplied trash bags and containers, while Roma cleaned the trash. Next action is a supply of drinking water. These Romas have nearest access to drinking water on 5km distanced graveyard. During the winter also this pipe is closed so they melt snow or drink from a stream that is polluted from farm fields and landfill. The stream serves also as a canalization for the settlement. This Roma settlement suffered a lot. Six years ago Slovenian terrorists throw a hand grenade through a window of last house in the settlement, killing a teacher’s assistant and her mother. Of course this terrorists are still unconvicted, since court can not agree about evidence.

However today sun was shining in this settlement after a very long time. As a journalist I was personally surprised that no journalist covered the event, inspite that I’ve personally told them this will be happening. As a contrast let me show a picture from yesterday’s anti-Roma protest in front of town hall in Novo mesto. There were about 40 protesters and 13 journalists.

More about terrorists killing Romas you can read on THIS link.

Danes je bila delovna akcija v romskem naselju Dobruška vas. Po tem, ko se je župan Škocjana zamenjal, so se v občini odločili, da ukrenejo nekaj za izboljšanje razmer v romskem naselju Dobruška vas. Za začetek so sklicali čistilno akcijo pri kateri je občina priskrbela vreče in kontejnerje, Romi pa so očistili naselje odpadkov. Sledila bo akcija, da ljudem omogočijo dostop do pitne vode. Namreč ti Romi imajo najbližjo pipo na pet kilometrov oddaljenem pokopališču. Pozimi je tam vodovod zaprt, tako talijo sneg ali pa pijejo iz potoka v katerega se steka vsa svinjarija iz polj in smetišč, služi pa tudi kot kanalizacijski jašek za naselje. To je to naselje, kjer so pred šestimi leti slovenski teroristi vrgli bombo skozi okno zadnje hiše v naselju in ubili pomočnico učiteljice in njeno mamo. Seveda ti teroristi so še vedno neobsojeni in na prostosti, saj se strokovnjaki ne more zediniti glede dokazov. Kakorkoli že, danes je prvič po zelo zelo dolgem času posijalo sonce v to žalostno vas. Mene, kot novinarja je presenetilo, da te zgodbe ni nobena medijska hiša pokrivala, kljub temu, da sem novinarjem osebno povedal, da se to dogaja in da je vredno medijske pozornosti. Kot kontrast naj povem, da so včeraj imeli Silvo Mesojedec in krajani Bučne vasi protestni shod pred mestno hišo v Novem mestu in 40 protestnikom je pozornost namenilo 13 novinarjev.

Več o tej zgodbi slovenskih teroristov lahko preberete na tej povezavi.

Anti Roma protest in front of City Hall, Novo mesto.
Silvo Mesojedec in krajani Bučne vasi na protiromskem shodu, Glavni trg, Novo mesto. 20110310_8119

When I saw exhibition of Sally Man in Photographers Gallery in London I was overwhelmed by the aesthetic of this technique, so I said I’ll give it a try. Under there is a video of Sally Man while working.

I bought this Folding Brownie 1/4 Plate Tintype Studio Kit from Bostick-Sullivan, New Mexico, USA for 641 EUR. This sum contains shipping and customs to Slovenia, EU. I’ll try first tintype, then I’ll move on to wet collodion glass plate medium. But first I’ll ask an expert to help me out with mixing of this chemicals, since I don’t want to poison myself. Stay tunned. Perhaps in a week I’ll have first results. Until then, here are some pictures from Uncle Google.

Ko sem videl razstavo Sally Man v Photographers Gallery v Londonu, me je prevzela estetika te tehnike in sem se odločil, da poizkusim. Spodaj je pripet video Sally Man med delom.

Kupil sem kit za mokri kolodij fotografijo pri Bostick-Sullivan. Vse skupaj s poštnino in carino je stalo 641 EUR. Najprej bom poizkusil tehniko na pločevini, ki je priložena (levo od kamere), potem pa se bom spravil nanašati kolodij na steklo. Preden se bom lotil zadeve, bom prosil za pomoč strokovnjaka, kemika po poklicu, saj se nočem zagiftati. Mogoče bo že čez kakšen teden pokazati kak rezultat, do takrat pa POVEZAVA do fotografij strica Googla v tej isti tehniki.

Yesterday there was a talk by Antonin Kratochvil and Markus Bleasdale (agency VII), in Ljubljana organized by SPP. It was a really cool night and I give both a catalog of my Flower Power project. Antonin was a bit ill, but his witty humor was sparking throughout the night. I talk with Antonin in Czech and told him that word “ty vole” is much cooler then fuck. Antonin, ty vole, asked me to sign a catalog for him It was a short night sleep, but I woke up inspired.

PS: I’ll try to publish Anotnin’s portrait in Striptiz creative portraits rubric in Mladina weekly, although it’ll take some effort, because I’m not photoeditor anymore.

Since I bought Photomatix, I love HDR technique and I use it also with my portraits. It takes quite some effort to avoid ghosting effect since people do move while bracketing, but the results are fascinating. I love the black and white in HDR technique. The richness of gray tones is astonishing so I named this technique iNsel iDams zone system. Check results from my recent visit to Roma settlement in Dobruška vas and Semič.

Roma portrayed bellow are sitting beside a donation of Mladina journalists and Mladina readers.