Slowing down

The weather heated up this morning and at 8:30am the heat in the room felt like we’d slept through the afternoon. The girls spent the day together, including a lovely photographic exhibit at the Museum of Fine Art called Soul and Body, including the works of Mapplethorpe, Kertesz, Bresson, Cunningham, Stieglitz, Cappa, Sherman, y mas.

Afterwards J and I took a swim at Szechenyi baths and walked back to meet O for a little gallery walk through our neighborhood. The city is lovely and there always seems like there is so much to do here. It is a very similar excitement to that of the capitols of Western Europe. Prices for everything imported are very high (and sometimes things are just high for no reason – at the baths a towel rental was 1600forint which is roughly $10) – much higher than in the west and it could be attributed to the deep socialism holding on as the tides shift to a capitalistic economy. I’ve found the most wonderful part of my days is just walking and meeting people I would never meet through my standard introduction “Can I take your picture?” I’ve come across people from the middle east – today I ran into three boys on a student visa from Iran and the other day it was a man on asylum from Iraq, he was glad to help me with my portrait and showed me his Iraqi press pass from the days he was a photographer. Now he works in a small falafel stand under an overpass, isn’t life strange how it can change in an instant. Some people are interested in knowing why I want to take their picture and others are more interested in whom I am and what I am doing here in Budapest.

I’ve found that when want to make work, I begin by collecting, then sorting the collection into what it wants to become. In this case I’m collecting on many levels, portraits, stories, quick finite moments and eventually I will find what is common to all these things or different and need to find out why. I think this is an act of problem creation, which is exciting.

I’ve surrounded myself with faces after getting proofs back from the lab (cost of processing and proofing $130 – 4 rolls 220, 2 rolls 120), the images seem so few from the work that was long and slow going. Shooting with the Yashica has forced me to slow down each time I make the photograph, to wait for the moment and to allow the subject of the photograph to “pause.” It is also interesting to me that this city has been here for so long and the people will be here in this time then gone. The document of the interaction will remain but then the interaction too will fade from memory and eventually the document will be gone as well. Barring any major natural disaster, the city will probably still be here when all those things have passed. I too pause in this instant and it is very much less frenetic than the pace I keep in Los Angeles, it is a luxury to do everything slowly – walk across town (1-2 hours, one way) instead of taking the trolley across town (5 min). It would be so convenient to jump on a bus or a trolley or the subway to arrive quickly at a destination, but then so much is missed. This is a true luxury as at home, even going to the market (that is 2 blocks away) involves getting in the car. So I leave you with the wish that you two are able to slow down today even for a moment.