I’ve finally updated my Photoshelter site. It’s mainly aimed at photo buyers but you can also view a lot of images that just didn’t make the cut in the editing process. Click on the image below to view or on this link: http://pa.photoshelter.com/c/chrishushagen
In 2005, just before I left Europe to move back to Canada after many years, I took a trip to Eastern Europe for a month to visit some old stomping grounds as well as some new. It was the most jam-packed trip I’ve ever taken. One month to go through Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia, a sliver of Croatia, what is now the country of Montenegro, Albania, Bulgaria, Istanbul, Athens and a flight up to Krakow. This sort of trip is unusual for me - my last trip was five months in one country. But I dearly wanted to visit some of these places, so I went.
I had originally intended to visit Macedonia and then go up through Kosovo as well, but was denied at the Macedonian border. Apparently a year or two back they started making Canadians apply for visas…..and my guidebook didn’t mention anything about that. Since that trip I’ve always named that particular guidebook company, “Let’s Go Get a New Guidebook”.
There were many hiccups on the trip, and the guidebook wasn’t helping. There was the bus from Hungary to Serbia that, and of course the guidebook didn’t mention this, only took Serbian money even though it left from Hungary. Nor did it take Euros. Then there was the bus that literally drove away with my backpack (I managed to get it back through a stroke of sheer luck and a helpful tourist booth staff member). There was the alcoholic American living in Bulgaria that I stayed with after meeting him in Budapest - double shot of Vodka to start in the morning. But the worst was what to this day still stands as my most challenging day of travel ever - battling a horrible cold and having to travel through snowy Albanian mountain roads haggling the whole way and not speaking the language only to get denied on the Macedonian border.
Despite or because of these set backs, it’s one of my most memorable trips.
Albania was on the list not because I’d heard great things about it but because I had heard nothing. It was a complete empty black spot on my personal map of Europe. So at a very young and innocent age, I went to one of the dodgier places you could go on the continent.
Albania is a country full of history and turmoil. Modern-times have left it scarred and poor. A country-wide pyramid scheme left the economy in shambles. Nearby wars meant a steady flow of guns. And in the poverty and war grew a network of criminals. Your Mercedes go missing in Europe? Go visit Albania. They sell them on the beaches there, newly imported from Italy, for $5000. It feels like nearly every car in the country is one. When I first got into the country and went to exchange money beside me there was a guy with countless American bills suction wrapped in plastic. How much? I have no idea what the denominations were, but one package would’ve had over 4000 bills in it. I never looked at the guy directly, just took my money and walked out and got on what was literally the next bus out of town.
I managed to keep my head low and out of trouble and in the mean time met some wonderful people. There were the group of American Peace Corps volunteers who took me out on the town my first night in the country and pointed me in the directions to go the rest of the way. The bed and breakfast owner that took care of me those two days I was bed ridden and feverish fighting that nasty cold. And even a memorable taxi driver or two. Did I just say that about an Albanian taxi driver????
I like the photos I took during my trip. I didn’t really back then, but I do now. My style was more free and open and more towards feeling than composition. This is something I fell out of and I’m struggling to get back to.
One of the things I’ve learned over the past years of travelling is to be (mostly) immune to culture shock when I’m in new places. I’m usually far too excited and busy deciphering directions to notice it. Culture shock when I’m back home is a different thing.
I’m happy at home for approximately one week. This is enough time to see old friends and family again. After that it’s all downhill. I’m constantly looking forward to the next trip, to that next time I get to pack my bags and board that plane or train. This means it’s a real pain in the ass being a photographer with thousands of images to re-edit, process, upload, tag and bag. Every time I get home and I’ve downed all those welcome-back beers, I’m faced with the task of looking through all my images, my memories, from wherever I just came.
This is where I’m at now. I’m a night owl so I do most of my work late at night (note the time stamp on this post). Beer to my left. Enough smokes to get me through things. Headphones on so I can listen to my music loud enough without pissing off the neighbours. And wondering where’s next.
Sometimes things just don’t go the way you planned or hoped. Recently when I was in Colombia I’d heard a lot about the local indigenous people. I’d seen them around a lot in town - they stick out quite a bit due to their dress (all white) and very distinctive features. I’d wanted to somehow photograph them but they’re notoriously anti-photograph. Finally a family member of my girlfriend suggested he go with me to a local house where many of them live and I could photograph them. “Wow, perfect!”, I thought….
Well, the day rolled around and we went there and I could sense from the beginning things weren’t going to turn out well. Sure enough, they didn’t want to be photographed. After talking with some of them for a while I was able to take a few photos, but it just didn’t feel good. I was also very apprehensive about taking pictures which meant I wasn’t really in the mood, so without any creative feelings I just sort of fell back on the ABCs of taking a half decent photo. The result shows it too. There’s only one photograph I enjoy and feel that it shows how their life is there. The rest are just….whatever.
For every of those stories there’s also one of randomness that turns out just swell. One of my last days in Colombia we went to a local beach that’s a little out of the way and much prettier than the easily accessible ones. On our way back we happened upon some kids jumping off a bridge. They said if we threw coins off the bridge into the water they’d dive in and get them. It was around 5pm - great light, great colours, a highly photographic subject - so I thought “fuck yeah”.
We were there for the next 30 minutes or more, talking with them, taking pictures, having a good time. I really enjoyed taking the photos and talking with them (in spanish no less). Somehow I had an american coin in my pocket and one of the kids remarked it was the first american money they’d ever held.
I knew going into that situation and I knew leaving that I’d have what I wanted out of the it in terms of photos, and I was right. It’s not exactly any sort of ground-breaking photo journalistic news-worthy story…..but it’s mine.
ps: I highly recommend you hit the ‘full screen’ button in the bottom right - photos need space and the smaller ones are just a downsized versions of the big ones.
pss: I’m having problems with soundslides at the moment, you may have to manually click through the images. And there’s six images on the second one, sometimes it doesn’t show up. Just reload the page if it doesn’t.
when things go wrong…
when things go right…
…..will be my life for the next while. Even though I did quick edits while I was away I’m still going through the photos from this last trip again and re-editing them down. Which means I’m also going to be re-post processing a lot of them. So this is going to be my view for the next while:
After five months away I finally sit here at home in my apartment. Am I happy that I’m back? Part of me yes. The other part never comes back home, it’s always out there on the road in someplace far off. ‘Home’ for me is the west coast of Canada and it will always be. It’s beautiful, I’ve lived most of my life near to the sea and can’t stand to be away from it for too long, the weather is something that grows on you and you miss it when you’re away surprisingly, and most importantly my life long friends and family are here.
But when you’ve spent so much time moving - moving through trains and airports and bus stations and metros and undergrounds and cars and foreign customs and foreign streets with incipherable names and hostels and hotels and bars and innumerable other lives, something of you gets left out there. Home is never the same again. You could call this the travel bug, maybe, but it’s more a condition of the travelled.
There’s a big gap in my posts here, sorry - my laptop was broken. It wouldn’t even turn on. So the last bit of my trip I got to travel with a $2200 paperweight. But thanks to those wizards of apple they replaced the dead video card (for free) and I’m back up and running again. I had to laugh when they gave me the call that my repairs were done because the woman asked me if I had had some work done to it. Apparently when I had the same problem in Colombia and I took it into a repair shop there they misplaced tons of things inside, including applying the wrong thermal paste to the processor - which would explain why my laptop was reaching temperatures of 90 degrees plus my last month in Colombia. But all is well for now in laptop land. It’s up and running just fine and I finished installing a new, faster, 500gb hard drive in it.
I’ve been trying to put the words together for a while for a post here but they’re just not coming out. I have a lot on my mind, but whenever I sit down in front of my laptop they disappear. So here’s a quick photo-blog to let you know that I’m still alive and that I’ll be back home in a few.
“I’ve lived in good climate, and it bores the hell out of me. I like weather rather than climate……I’d like to see how long an Aroostook County man can stand Florida…..And in the humid ever-summer I dare his picturing mind not to go back to the shout of color, to the clean rasp of frosty air, to the smell of pine wood burning and the caressing warmth of kitchens. For how can one know color in perpetual green, and what good is warmth without cold to give it sweetness?”
John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley
Usually when I’m reading a good book there comes a point in the story where I’m hooked and I can’t put it down. For Travels with Charley, that was the paragraph. It fit my mood and I loved the words. I’ve been meaning to read the book for quite some time now, and I’ve owned the book for about a year and a half, but finally now I’m actually reading the thing.
I’ve always loved travel books, good ones that is. I’ve read almost every non-fiction book by Paul Theroux, gone through Chatwin’s fiction-nonfiction works, multiple times through Byron’s The Road to Oxiana and many more. Next up is Appsley-Gerrard. I love the observations, the random encounters. To me that’s travel and when I’m not on the road I consume them.
The climate here in Taganga, Colombia is probably quite similar to that of Cuernavaca, Mexico, which Steinback talks about in that paragraph. Constant heat from about 7:30 in the morning, few clouds if any. From a BC boy’s point of view, nothing to complain about really. But the thing is you don’t really appreciate all this sun and heat without a little rain and storm here and there. At least I don’t. Why do I have to go to the beach today when tomorrow the weather will be the same and I can go then?
And what’s more, when I’m in a bad mood the last thing I want is perfect weather. Give me a few storm clouds and thunder to fit the mood please and thanks. If anything, sunny weather pisses me off more when I’m angry or down.
Which is why I was elated the other day when some storm clouds rolled in and dumped a ton of rain, lightning and thunder on this place. The locals didn’t know quite what to do with it. If living in BC most of my life has taught me anything it’s how to deal with in-climate weather. Out came the camera, out came the rain jacket. But for most of it I just set up the hammock (I have a large covered balcony in this place), made myself some jugo and when that was done cracked open a beer and just enjoyed the show.
Some people here claim that in Canada we never get sunsets as good as the ones here. I always argued that the serious lack of clouds here leads to sub-par sunsets compared to what we can get on the west coast of Canada and our surplus of clouds. The bad weather is proving me right.
Semana Santa(Easter) is in full swing here. Colombia being a hugely Catholic country the churches are packed and so are the discotheques. I can’t really figure that one out but whatever. I’ve been neglecting this blog lately, sorry. I’ve been dealing with a few things lately but I now have a few projects on the horizon so hopefully they pan out - I’ll keep you updated. In other news I’m currently fighting my third cold in as many weeks. I think the cold bugs are getting their revenge on me for going about a year in Canada without one. Enjoy.
Electricity is an iffy thing here. The place I’m staying in hasn’t had it for seven days. The town I’m staying in has it occasionally. This isn’t a problem when you have a beer in hand and you’re on the beach, but it makes it pretty annoying when you’re trying to edit your pictures or just browse facebook. A couple times I’ve sat down in an internet cafe and literally the moment I log into facebook the power in the whole town goes out. Maybe it’s an omen? I know facebook is evil but come on now.
On Friday I head up to a beach called Palomino with friends for a few days of mamaron and sun. I haven’t been taking many photos lately and it’s pissing me off. Below are a few pics I took in Puerto Colombia that I was finally able to get to play with today.
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