SVEIG

Colourless Bogota.

Final part

Bogotá, without colors.

Buildings of Bogota.

Bogota, North part. Bogota is like any city, segregated, but it has a particularity that makes it unique. After the Bogotazo (riots that followed the assassination of the liberal politician Jorge Eliecer Gaitan) the city-centre was pretty much devastated. Fearing for their lives and goods, the wealthy Bogotanos established themselves in the Northern part of the city where they found the security and tranquillity lost in the city centre. The rich were now in the North, the poor in the South.

Colombia, being one of the most unequal country in the world, tried to tackle this issue during the 1980′s by putting in place a system of six “estratos” (stratums), the system is pretty simple; the city would be divided in six parts, the first one being the poorest, while the sixth being the richest, if you live in the first estrato your electricity or water bill will be subsidized by the city but not if you live in the wealthy sixth estrato. According to an excellent article by The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/nov/09/bogota-colombia-social-stratification-system) half of Bogota’s inhabitants live in the first and second stratum while only 1.6% of them live in the sixth.

This system, quite similar to the one in the trilogy Hunger Games, is controversial as it divides the city and its inhabitants (I witnessed one student in Law at the University of Los Andes (an elitist and private university in Bogota) greeting someone the following way “Hola estrato 4 !”, the joke was supposedly funny from the point of view of a stratum six. It is nevertheless anecdotal but it represent the atmosphere you can live if you are not from a “good district”.

In La Candelaria, Bogota.

COLOMBIA,

For the next months, I’m going to publish some photos dedicated to this country mainly known for turbulent history with narcotrafic.

This series will focus on my main topics such as architecture but my writings will focus on something that I’m not used of dealing with: people.

As will, this journey was the first I made only with analog cameras, this first photo “first of the roll” has something really special as I consider it a representing the magic of films. It was taken somewhere above the Atlantic ocean, the second one was taking above Mexico City.

I invite you to discover just a few shots for introducing this trip from another world. We will land in several days in Bogota.

Loos, city of 21.000 inhabitants, located next to Lille (Rijsel). This city, mainly industrial is typical of Flanders, with its houses made of bricks, its industrial buildings and as well the “Friterie” (Frituur), kind of food truck going around the North of France selling Flemish specialities.

Introducing the FED MIKRON 2, a Soviet made camera.

Exploring photography and its mediums, after the Instax, I decided to give a try to a “non-instant” camera. Malù offered me a FED, I quickly adopted it. I’m pleased to show you my new way of documenting the world.

For the next months, I’ll publish series about Flanders and Colombia. After 35 days of travelling, I’m back with quite a lot of shots.

Views of Budapest.

Budapest Underground.

Views of Vienna.

Streets of Wien.

On the road, from Praha to Wien.

The Soviet Architecture of Praha. August 2017.

Federal Assembly of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Assembly_(Czechoslovakia)

Praha

After Berlin > Praha

Rebel and true to herself.

Part 1: Praha’s streets.