Heading North...

Waking up at 6am on Saturday morning sounds like a crazy plan considering the fact that I do it every day during the week. This time however it was something special on the way - A photo trip with my good friend and excellent photographer Jim Leonard, who came up with this idea a few weeks earlier.

The day before I packed my Rollei, Holga (yes, just two cameras this time) and box of films. It was still dark and pleasantly mild when I left my place. An hour later I met Jim. We packed our bags into the trunk and soon after that we’ve been on the road to Belfast. 

Forecast was rather unfavourable. Once we arrived, to our surprise, Belfast was literally shining. The streets were filled with beautiful light reflecting off buildings and illuminating surroundings. It couldn't be better.

Belfast © Artur Sikora

I don’t remember when last time I was wandering the streets just for pure photography and enjoyment, without any other particular purpose. 

What made it special however was the fact that we were not on our own. We have met a fantastic local photographers who showed us Belfast from completely different perspective - Sean Allen, Patrick O’Lean and Alistair Prentice. 

(Links to their websites/public profiles are at the bottom of this text so please have a look) 

Walking, photographing and listen to great stories... Just a perfect day! It was also a great experience to see them in action portraying strangers on the streets in such an interesting manner and with full confidence. I was surprised how positive all approached strangers reacted asked to being photographed.

And of course I was the odd one avoiding people and pointing my camera towards concrete and brick walls ;)

Belfast, Gate in Peace Wall © Artur Sikora

Belfast, Peace Wall © Artur Sikora 

Belfast, Divis Street © Artur Sikora

Belfast © Artur Sikora

This is just a glimpse of what I photographed over there. Still have 2 rolls of films to process (out of 5 in total). This includes photographs of couple of architectural gems. 

As usually all images will be presented soon on my social media: FB, Twitter, Instagram and also LinkedIn. 

At the end we visited Ulster Museum and extraordinary exhibition 'Temporary/Permanent' by Frankie Quinn, marking the 50th anniversary of the erection of the first Belfast peace wall. Exhibition is open until 10th of November so go for it if you will be in the area.

© Artur Sikora

I guess we were very lucky with weather. Late afternoon, as we got back into the car, heavy rain started...  

At the end I wanted to thank here Jim, Sean, Patrick and Alistair for wonderful day!

Please don’t forget to check links below:

Jim Leonard:

FB page:  https://www.facebook.com/jimleonardphotography/
Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/jim_leonard53/

Sean Allen:

Website: https://rambleswithmycamera.com
FB page:  https://www.facebook.com/RamblesWithMyCamera/

Patrick O'Loan:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/patrickoloan/

Alistair Prentice:

FB page: https://www.facebook.com/StreetStrangersOfNorthernIreland/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alistairprenticephoto/

Thank you! 

Saint Fintan's Church

It took me a while to write these few words and first of all to get back to this abandoned blog. Truly crazy last 7-8 months with lots of work and not much time (if at all) for personal photography but here it is - I got a chance to make a few images of a building I was interested in for a few years now.

Saint Fintan's church in Sutton designed by Andrew Devane (of RKD Architects), built in 1972.

Classic, beautiful example how to deal with concrete, how to make it look great and and how to shape it. It’s not the first building designed by Andy Devane I am visiting. I am sure you remember photographs of incredible AiB Bank Centre in Ballsbridge … (please use this LINK to see images)

All photographs were made with Hasselblad 500c/m with Distagon 50/4 and two rolls of really good films - Rollei RPX 25 and ADOX CMS 20 which caught my special attention. 

I exposed Adox at ISO 16 and processed both films in Kodak Xtol as usual. Result was truly impressive. Beautiful , clear negatives with strong contrast and incredible tonality.

It was especially important in case of concrete structure like Saint Fintan’s church.

Time for a few photographs...

© Artur Sikora

© Artur Sikora

© Artur Sikora

© Artur Sikora

© Artur Sikora 

Add caption

© Artur Sikora

© Artur Sikora

© Artur Sikora

Thank you!

Built in nature...

It took me a while to write this post. Usually when I am showing photographs and writing about modernism all words just flowing out of my head. This time however was a bit different.
I tried to write something a few times this week but decided to postpone it at the end.
It is probably because disappointment sitting deep in my head related to camera incident I am constantly talking about... I know... 
Material for this article was the most important for me and most of photographs which never came out were made exactly on described below site. Close-ups, some details and really interesting frames showing how well this building is connected to the nature. 

I am here anyway with what’s left and with some description...  at last.

Visiting described place was special for couple of reasons. It is the only naturally preserved structure in the area, structure so well representing my beloved period in architecture. It is also the only one which stands out and looks simply beautiful. 

The most interesting aspect however is the fact that the owner of the house was my history teacher in secondary school. Absolutely lovely lady! It was a pure pleasure to meet her after all these years.

How did I get to photographing described building? I was thinking about it many times when my trip to Poland was approaching… and believe me or not but actually It’s happened spontaneously. 
I mentioned Mariusz Tomczuk in my last post.  Yep, he lives almost next door :) and Mariusz also had a plan to visit neighbouring modernist treasure so… we just did it. 

House was built in 1938 by the father of present owner. This extraordinary building sits on a beautiful plot surrounded by an amazing trees. Generally it is a very green part of the town, away from a busy streets. All of it makes this place very special.

What’s the most important if the fact that interior looks like the time has stopped decades ago. It is not only about furnitures but also the smallest details. Incredible. I was seriously amazed when I entered the house.
This applies to the entire building.

I also had an opportunity to see part of the original project. Very exciting moment. Small A4, already yellow/brownish pages with hand drown layouts . Unfortunately there was no obvious these days data table so I don’t have the name of the Architect.

Anyway - there is nothing more to say to be honest. Have a look please at photographs. This house is just beautiful and its every corner speaks for itself!

We had a plan to split our session into two parts that day in order to get a proper lighting on all elevations. Time was flying however so we managed to do it in one go. Sun smoothly illuminated our 'model' from the east to the west perfectly!

I am not sure when I will be in Hrubieszow again and if I will be able to rephotograph what has been lost but I am really happy with images I got and possibility of seeing the house.
Many thanks to the owner of the place for having us! 

Tech info:

All photographs here were made with Hasselblad 500c/m and Distagon 50/4 on Ilford Pan F Plus 50 and Kodak TMax 400 exposed at ISO 50.