Month: July 2016

When traveling to Kosovo, one of the things I was looking forward to the most was getting to know more about the culture here. On July 5, 2016 I had the opportunity to join Kaltrina Zeka and her family at their home for their Bajram celebration. Eid al-Fitr, or Bajram, marks the end of Ramadan and is full of celebrations throughout the region.

When I arrived we were given desserts and juice, typical refreshments given to guests who arrive to celebrate with the family. The men of the house were still out at the morning prayer, and while the women waited for them to return home, they began to prepare the food for the day. The main dish that was served was a rice, chicken, and roasted tomato dish called ‘byrjan me mish’. Throughout the day I was fed more and more desserts, both before and after we sat down for the main meal. The main dish ‘byrjan me mish’ was accompanied by salads, bread, grilled vegetables, another type of pastry, and fresh vegetables from their garden. Everything in the salad as well as the vegetables was picked fresh from their garden earlier that day.

After the main meal was done and cleaned up, everyone sat down and relaxed a little bit before Kaltrina’s father, brother, herself and I headed out to visit some of their relatives. At her aunt and uncle’s house I was given even more cake and baklava. Everyone relaxed and chatted with one another before going out in the backyard for a little bit. Her brother kicked around a soccer ball while her father and uncle chatted about their garden as well as shed like structure over their grill. We didn’t stay too long, since her father had only gotten two hours of sleep the night before. When we arrived back at Kaltrina’s house, most of her family was just in their rooms relaxing out of the heat, while I watched a movie with Kaltrina, while of course eating more, cake, baklava, popcorn, and drinking tea.

 

I really enjoyed being able to experience this holiday and these celebrations with Kaltrina and her family. They were all so kind to invite me into their home, especially on this day of celebration, and welcomed me with open arms. I’ve learned more about their culture as well as this holiday celebrated by Muslims all around the world. I was so full from all of the delicious food and desserts that I didn’t have to eat any more for that entire.

The most frustrating thing for me when it comes to photography is dealing with models. Sometimes they cancel unexpectedly, or worse-don’t show up at all with no explanation leaving you subject-less at the last minute. However, typically you can find another one, because you are using them to showcase something else in the image, whether it’s a product, a lifestyle, or a mood. For documentary work I have come to realize that this is very different.

For the newborns project, an individual is being represented in your work. Each individual has a story, and once you become invested into their unique story, it’s extremely hard to simply “find someone else” when things don’t work out. In this situation the subject is not merely replaceable.

Though my subject has not abandoned my project, and is a super great person, I have still faced the difficulties that come with relying on a stranger to create a body of work. I don’t think the subjects truly understand what is needed to create a strong project, even if you explain it in detail to them, and often times they begin to unknowingly sabotage the entire project. Even if you inform them of all the requirement ahead of time, they still will decide to change their minds last minute, and give you restrictions on what you are allowed to shoot and not shoot, and what photos you’re allowed to use of them in the end. I’ve also noticed the subjects tend to assume that, as photographers we want them to do certain things that they normally wouldn’t do if we weren’t there, and that’s not what we are looking for.

This class made me realize that every project has its set backs, and some you just have to deal with it and make things work with what you have. At the end of the day, no matter how bad the situation is you just have to create a memorable story.

The concept of I speak about them to you in “Introduction to Documentary” by Bill Nichols, besides the general sense of all the people, objects and concepts involved in the project making, also gave me a greater understanding of the psychological aspect of the process. Throughout the read I had had in mind a personal project, which involves people I’m very close with and has to do with their personal life as much as with mine. While I am not too cautious about sharing my thoughts and deeds, I feel doubtful about theirs. The read led me to more research as it did not include elaborations on being in a project where the subjects are your closest family members.  I have been reading and watching interviews and articles of such topics.

Ethics being the central part of Documentary, I’d recommend watching the following link:

On Friday, me and Wentian met with one of the main characters of “SHOK”, Andi Bajgora (13y/o).

We spent a couple of hours together. First half an hour at Dit’ e Nat’, we basically explained to him who we were and what we were trying to do and ended up having some nice conversations off the Zoom Recorder. After that, we went to Grand Hotel’s Lobby for a quieter space where we could start the first interview with Andi.

On the way to meet him me and Wentian were a little worried if Andi would be able to express himself easily in English and luckily he did, so that made the whole process easier for us. I really enjoyed interviewing him, as I thought he was a very young and curious person, who was seeking for questions that made him tell new stories.

Many times, I got very into the interview, where it seemed like we were just hanging out and opening up, that I forgot to keep quiet when I was agreeing with him, surprised or found his stories funny. I even shared some stories of mine just cos I wanted to. I’m not yet sure if that’s a terrible thing or not since I haven’t heard the outcome.

 

The lab time this past Thursday was very interesting and engaging. I enjoyed seeing everyone coming up with different ways of retelling the story. From a previous method of poetry that I studied, called something like “Poetry through random word generators”, I immediately wanted to chop the text up in smaller chunks and tell another story completely. In that case working with a partner was difficult as you always had to ask the other person if they were alright with your ideas and in our case our ideas at times were clashing. I left class curious about the ways people find common grounds between ideas and tastes that at times tend to clash.

 

After we were given information about our person that we need to do interview with, it was time for fieldwork. We were supposed to meet at town of Prishtina but things complicated, our person went in Peja, (western Kosovo)  because of her work. After we were informed about that, time wasn’t our friend, lot of work must be done so we decided to go for a visit. It was Friday and we din’t know that our person was located in mountains and that there is only one daily transport because  we’ve never been in western part of the country but somehow we made it. As we traveled we tried to assume how this place look like. After three hours of travel we were told by the bus driver that we are at the location we looked for. We step out and we saw either, there was no signal as well no wireless so we decide to take first path that appeared to us. After a mile walking we found the place. The place was opposite to our expectation, it was heaven on earth. We were impressed by the place and people and our visit supposed to be for a day but that was impossible at that kind of place so we decide to spend the whole weekend and explore things. I will just share some pictures with you and you guys try to develop story as we did it in class exercise, because I have no words that could describe the place. 

 

A photographer named Norik, who is regarded as one of the top photographers in Kosovo, allowed me to accompany him on a photo shoot of a bride and groom. Watching him work is amazing. The quality of the photos he takes are superb and the techniques he uses when shooting and the boundaries he breaks reflects his passion for the art. There is nothing he is afraid of doing when it comes to taking the perfect photograph. It could involve getting knee deep in water many would deem unpleasant or even dangerous.  Or trusting one of his crew members to hold his weight as he leans down over a dangerous slope to capture a breathtaking shot.

Norik is an extremely busy man. He photo shoots on average two weddings a day, every day. The stress he endures would be overwhelming for most people, but the love of his craft outweighs all else. Watching him work is interesting to say the least. He understands how well he performs with a camera and is not shy to share the pride he feels for his work. I have never had the opportunity before to spend so much time around a true artist I am quickly realizing that his perception of art and the world is changing mine. The knowledge I will gain from this experience I am sure will benefit me for years to come.

Last week was marked with a lot of interesting events. After a better acquainted among students in RIT Kosovo summer program, we divided into groups of two people to work on newborn project in Kosovo, were every group was given the person to spent a day with and do interview. Our person is a journalist by profession and to make things more interesting the person in my group is studying  photojournalism from which I learned a lot about photojournalism. Another interesting thing that happens in first part of the week was exercise where we were given the pictures to make a story. There were seven groups, each group was given same pictures and the most interesting part was, at the end every group developed different story.

 

Working in a country where there are many people who don’t speak English has proven to be an extra challenge while working on documentary projects. This is my first time working on a story where I need someone else with me so that I am able to communicate with my subject.

I find that I have to go through extra efforts to get my point across to someone and it interrupts the flow of the conversation when what I say has to be translated. I try to communicate the best I can, and offer a smile here and there to make them feel comfortable.

Nevertheless these challenges have proven to be a learning experience for me. It is necessary exposure that will benefit me in the long run.

On Saturday I joined my subject, Kaltrina, to understand the level of activity during her day. The language barrier was hard, but I did my best to work with it. Kaltrina is highly motivated to get up each day and exercise in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle. I unknowingly photographed a local celebrity here, Agnesa Vuthaj, as she is trained by Kaltrina.

Kaltrina also works with little kids and teaches them how to swim. She helped them to put on their swim caps, adjust their goggles, and in some cases, give them an extra push when they dive in!

This past Tuesday I was lucky enough to get to spend the day with the Zeka family and participate in their Bajram festivities. When my partner Malinda and I arrived we were immediately greeted with open arms and given a tour of their beautiful home. Once their father and a few family members arrived back home, we all sat together on their outdoor patio and shared some delicious baked goodies ranging from baklava to a fancy three layered cake. We sat and chatted for some time learning more about the Muslim religion, and finding out more about their family.

Once their mother began making lunch, we followed the children and their father into their garden to pick fresh herbs and vegetables for the meal. I was amazed at the variety of greens that they had (they had mint, chives, tomato’s, arugula, and everything in between) in such a small space. The feast they prepared for lunch reminded me of a Thanksgiving dinner. The amount of delicious food they had made was incredible and ranged from meat pies and rice with chicken and roasted tomato’s, to noodle soup and mixed vegetables. After dinner we were given even more baklava before departing to a family members house. We were informed that typically only the men do this, but we were invited to come and document this as well. Once we reached the relatives home they too provided some goodies for us (more delicious baklava!) and took a tour of their garden as well before heading back home

The entire day was a great experience. I myself am not a religious person, so I am always extremely interested in hearing about other people’s beliefs and customs. I feel that participating in this holiday brought me closer with Pristina itself because since coming here I haven’t got a chance to really immerse myself in their traditions. It was so nice to have strangers be so warm and welcoming, offering their home and food to us. I will never forget this day.