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My blog has officially been featured on the travel guide website ruba.com!

Authentic Travel

The Results of “American Flag By Your Eyes” Photography contest!

Hello all,

so I now finally know the results of the photography contest that I have been longing to know for the last three months! Two out of five photos that I sent in the photography contest “Americká vlajka Tvýma očima” of the American Center of US Embassy in Prague as my portfolio for the American Flag photography contest won a prize!

Actually, out of nearly 300 photos submitted in the contest, a total of 10 prizes were given to 10 best photos, which are currently being exhibited at the American Center as a part of the contest, and I won 2 of them! 2 out of 10! I am so happy!!!

The 4th place for my photo of reflection of American flag on the Vietnam War memorial:

(Vietnam War Memorial, Washington, DC – July 4, 2008)

…and the 9th place for the photo of the Wall Street:

(Wall Street, New York City – July 30, 2008)

I am especially happy about the results as this is the first photography contest ever, where I sent my pictures, I just started taking photography seriously only very recently, and 2 of my photos were already selected in the TOP 10 winners of the whole competition!

For those living in Prague, the exhibit is taking place at the American Center of US Embassy on Trziste. All 10 winning photos will also be published in the next issue of travel magazine 100+1!

Now that I got an impulse like this, I promise I will continue with photography and will be taking much more pictures and posting them here!

Just need to get over the exam season at the University of Glamorgan, where I am currently getting my Erasmus exchange experience, and do all the assessments for the lectures first…

After then, I’m all yours again!

Martina

Update of “Americká vlajka Tvýma očima” photography contest

My photos of the US flag were shortlisted in the photography contest “American Flag By Your Eyes” and will be published in 100+1 travel magazine!!!! I am so happy!

The results of the whole contest will be announced in American Center of the US Embassy in Prague on December 10, 2008. Wish me luck!!!

Best,

Martina

Barry Island: My first time at the sea since coming to Wales!

Today I made a trip to Barry Island, a beautiful place with sandy beaches just 30 mins out of Cardiff by train. I just needed a change. Some place calm to exhale for a while from the consumerism-oriented culture in the town and rushy preparations for the nearing Christmas. When I found out about the island from a friend last weekend, I knew right away that when it finally stops raining I have to go. Today – it stopped, finally. With the first sunshine slowly chasing the rainy clouds out of the sky I took the train to Barry Island. The fact that the ticket guy never came to charge me for the ticket all the way there just made the whole trip even more enjoyable!

When I got there eventually, I was stunned – the sea! I was at the sea! Finally I could exhale! Finally I could breathe again! Finally I was free! This is what I needed! Fresh Air, Wind, Sea, roaring of the Sea Waves, Beach, Sand, Dogs running around the beach even against the ban of dogs running around the beach , the ubiquitous Seagulls, the LIFE! Everything I’ve been looking for since I came here I found in that one very moment! I was free again and it felt great!

The island itself though feels a bit sad… Sad and forgotten… As the season’s over for this year, everything around was closed – cafés, restaurants, shops, even the local fish & chips that’s always opened was closed today. The only thing that until now remained opened from some reason – was the casino and the gaming-house… Wicked! Looks like even if people don’t have anything to eat and drink here, they’re always up for a quick stop to gamble!

Apart from the sandy beach in the Whitmore Bay, the main attraction of the island is the Barry Island Pleasure Park. Founded back in 1920, this place has been attracting its visitors from nearby towns by a promise of a quality time spent with their families on the sunny weekends during the tourist season. Just a simple idea of having a picnic on the beach with a small group of friends or a person you love, laying on the sand getting tanned and for those braver trying out the cold water while jumping up and down in the sea waves, visiting the pleasure park and its attractions, having fun and a good time taking a day off from a routine life of everyday responsibilities in the city, just simple thinking about a free day spent at this place when the weather is nice and you’re not alone, makes me feel ecstatic!

After a whole month of not shooting and wandering the streets of gloomy Cardiff like a body without a soul, today I finally found my inspiration there again! I’m so happy that I went! For those of you who weren’t lucky enough to enjoy this place as much as I did today, I am enclosing some of the pictures that I took there. Well, what more can I say? Maybe just – enjoy!

“American Flag By Your Eyes” Contest of US Embassy in Prague

And here it is - the moment that I and all people supportive of me taking pictures of the US flag all the time have been looking for the whole summer – my photos were published at the US Embassy website! Actually, all the photos that I submitted were selected for placement in the contest gallery!!!

The best selects of my work I am presenting here. To see the selected pictures in the photo gallery on US Embassy website, please visit the following links.

http://photos.state.gov/galleries/czechrepublic/31467/photo_usflag/31.html

Ground Zero, New York City, USA, July 30, 2008.

http://photos.state.gov/galleries/czechrepublic/31467/photo_usflag/155.html

Wall Street, New York City, USA, July 30, 2008.

http://photos.state.gov/galleries/czechrepublic/31467/photo_usflag/203.html

Boat cruise on Potomac River, Mount Vernon, Virginia, USA, June 22, 2008.

http://photos.state.gov/galleries/czechrepublic/31467/photo_usflag/3.html

World War II Memorial, Washington, DC, USA, July 12, 2008.

http://photos.state.gov/galleries/czechrepublic/31467/photo_usflag/116.html

Vietnam War Memorial, Washington, DC, USA, July 4, 2008.

However, as it was possible to submit the photo essay of 5 pictures only, I decided to publish also the remaining pictures and run the whole story on my blog… Here it goes!

Cardiff: Where consumerism meets the traditional culture…

UK: The place of deep truths at unexpected places...

Even though I tend to dislike explaining the meaning of my photos for visitors of my site, because I believe that the photographer is only the medium and that each viewer should extract the message the way they feel, this time I will make an exception for once.

The reason is to it is very prosaic. After editing some of the stuff that I took during the last week when walking around the centre of Cardiff and Cardiff Bay, I started to see some broader connotations of my work and its connection to the state of society and cultural values in today’s world.

Usually when shooting, I know exactly what the story is and what I’m trying to say through my photos, but this time I used a different mechanism that is a bit more intuitive. I was just shooting everything that I felt was worth capturing and waited for the story to come out itself later in the process.

As a media studies major, I have very close to cultural studies and semiology, and as a starting photographer I naturally tend to position myself as an observer. With a strong passion for people watching and trying to tell their life stories through the way of their acting, I love putting things in a broader context and see what story could images say about them…

Here’s one of the essays that I shot in front of one of the shopping centres downtown Cardiff. I attempted to incorporate the  nearby standing statue representing the traditional family in the pictures and so try to find out what the liaison between consumerism, modern architecture, and urban style of life vs. traditional family values would be.

Trying to propose more of a reflexive thought about the relation between today’s model of traditional family in the UK and the life heavily driven by consumerism, this photo essay is aiming more on independent thinking process of each of the viewers.

If you have some interesting input, and would like to say how you feel about this issue, or would just like to send a feedback, please do so in the comments section. Feedback is always welcome as it enables people to compare their own thoughts and the way they personally see things with perception of others, which can sometimes be very enriching!

Mother got a great idea to spend a day with family in a shopping centre…

The tension of consumerism in the UK: “Chercher Les Enfants” as it follows the children!

Little devils with angel faces: Children vs. Their worn out parents…

The great depression of broke fathers…

Facing this age isn’t always easy…

…especially with two little children!

Man is the head of family and should take care of it! It’s a matter of his pride!

My little boy will do things better than I have, when he grows up…

Maybe we should have gone to a park instead, sighs the mother silently…

“Like all addictions – consumerism involves denial of its consequences!”

Meet My New School: The ATRiuM!

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries (ATRiuM), the brand new multimedia school of University of Glamorgan located in the heart of Cardiff that I was writing about in the previous post is for its very modern and sharp-cut design often referred to as The Fridge by locals.

This Fridge though, as some people like like to call it, is a very innovative project not only from the perspective of its equipment worth 35,000,000 pounds, but also for the synergy of culture, art and media driven subjects all taught in one and the same building.

ATRiuM offers its students the total of three main branches of studies: Art & Design, Media & Communication and Drama & Music. Each one of these has its own specialisations and study programmes on both BA and postgraduate levels.

From my point of view, the idea of combining all of these areas together is very effective as it creates for its students a truly multimedia environment. The possibilities students are getting there allow them not only to meet people with various specialisations, but also to learn more about different aspects of art, media and culture aside from the field of their studies, which will benefit them in a long run. To me opportunities this school offers its students are simply priceless!

After visiting one of the professors from the department of photography and have chatted with him about different modules options and the programme itself for an unbelievable hour and half in his office, I realized how big of a difference this school is compared to Charles University, where professors would give students the maximum of 5 minutes, if they actually cared about what the student had to say…

The difference is truly stunning! After this long chat with the professor I got an impression that I would want to stay here not only for one year, but for the whole BA programme as this school could teach me more in one year than impersonal professors with boring lectures over the last 4 years!

Their photography programme simply amazed me! It sounds so fascinating as it teaches lots of different modules focused on both theory and history of film and photography and the practical side of photography production. In the theoretical part, the lectures specialise mainly on the relation of photography and the contemporary media, society and cultural studies. In the practical part, the school offers its students modules based on both film and digital photography and teaches about about documentary photography, photographic fictions, fine art photography, war photography etc.

The fact that I appreciate the most about this programme is that it involves lots of creativity from the students’ part as I find Charles University being heavily theoretical to the point it feels like it created a parallel world to the reality of practical life. This programme, on the other hand, organizes lots of workshops, is heavily practical and so allows students to create on their own and produce some original content, and offers different opportunities to go places as a group of students e.g. to photography exhibitions throughout the UK and then doing a feedback on what we have seen when writing cultural reviews for the local newspapers and magazines.

How wonderful is that?! The more I will try to suck a maximum out of this opportunity and prove myself that I can fo it! See you in a year equipped with some serious ”pro photographer” skills!

Welcome to Cardiff/Croeso y Caerdydd!

So after a long time, the reality is finally here: I am starting a new year long period of my life in Cardiff, Wales! Decided to make the best experience out of it, I’m am currently trying to contact all the media-related agencies in the town and find myself a part-time job, which would support me during my studies of Photography at the University of Glamorgan for a year.

I have to say though, the school is simply beautiful! The brand new multimedia building worth 35,000,000 pounds built in the heart of Cardiff is a very unique project. Offering its future students all kinds of art and media related fields such as drama, media and communications, journalism, TV and radio broadcasting, film, photography, as well as fashion promotion and new media design, the University of Glamorgan’s ATRiuM is supposedly the only school of its kind in all of Europe. The more excited I am to start studying at the beginning of next week!

During the downtime I have before the school starts next week I am trying to get acclimatized with the life in the city and explore some of its beauties. Today I took the train to the Cardiff Bay and it was a very smart thing to do! The first thing that I am always looking for when I come to a new place is: the water. The water calms me down, gives me a certain feeling of balance and builds my impression of the place, where I find myself as a whole. It was exactly what I needed, without the bay the perception of the city wouldn’t be the same!

While the centre of Cardiff offers more of the shopping experience and the pub culture, bars and clubbing driven life, the Cardiff Bay, on the other hand, shows more of the pleasant atmosphere of just walking around the promenade, breathing the fresh air, sipping cappuccino wrapped up in the blanket in one of the local cafes or even enjoying the cultural life of the opera theatre and the drama performances that the Millenium Centre has to offer. The life in the Cardiff Bay just goes in a much more easy-going pace than the busy shopping-oriented district of the centre of the city…

Although being busy looking for a job at the moment, I managed to take some nice pictures during my quick visit to the bay today. Hope you’ll enjoy! And I promise to get back to some reasonable frequency of posting new images, which will hopefully be much shorter than a month!

The Nighttime Prague

Hradcany Panorama - The Prague Castle at Night /Martina Olbertova - August 2008/

The National Theatre at Night /Martina Olbertova - August 2008/

Artsy-Fartsy Prague? (1/2)

It feels like the new wave of “modern art” has literally flooded Prague this summer… The so-called masterpieces are installed everywhere you look around right now – a whole regiment of plastic penguins lined up just several meters off the Charles Bridge lighting up the whole place in the shades of neon yellow, a red plastic alligator installed right on the main wall of Sovovy Mlyny Museum, a pair of kitschy red plastic poodles placed in front of it in the position of “just like standing around”, or the other couple of gigantic red colored rabbits sadly looking through the bars locked behind the tall iron gate in the courtyard of the museum…

What’s up with this? Why do people produce such disgusting pieces, dare to place them in the very middle of downtown to distract the visitor’s attention from the historic feel of Prague and yet call it art? I understand that modern art can serve as a very valuable instrument of communication when reflecting the new with the history, but the most important point taken into consideration should always be an original idea and ability of such piece to create a certain cohesion with the historical core of the city… Why don’t these pieces have any taste what-so-ever then?