It’s been a long time that I didn’t write anything here, but also quite a while that I wasn’t an active photographer. I’m not saying this will radically change, but seeing that this blog basically noone reads, I might as well post some things that are interesting – to me I finally got a decent film scanner – Nikon Coolscan 4000 ED, so I’m revisiting some old negatives. I also had a bunch of them undeveloped in the fridge. One of those is this Fomapan 100 negative I shot during early 2020.
Ah yes, the good old covid-19 lockdown! Literally noone on the streets and then on 22. march 2020 a strong earthquake in Zagreb that ruined many old buildings in the center. Those days I went to my workplace by foot as I usually did because it’s just a 40 minute walk, but it was amazing to see completely deserted streets. Yes, lockdown was in place but we were excused to go to work. It was also a good excuse to bring my camera, Contax T2, loaded with some Fomapan 100. Contax is my favorite camera to take on photo walks or just have it around. Only the first photo in the gallery is from a color negative (forgot which one, but also taken with Contax T2) that I made b&w, but it is so convenient to start the story with “I HATE CORONA” written on the wall.
The photos were obviously made a little after the earthquake – you can see “do not cross” police strips all over the center of Zagreb where these photos were taken. You can also see the confused pidgeons looking for food – there was noone to feed them, especially on the main square, so whenever the saw someone they would follow that person for a while. Like in a horror movie.
Of course there were the signs – wash your hands, no playing in the playground and my favorite, a billboard on a news stand with huge “HOLD ON” letters and a guy happily playing his guitar. Little did we know how many people got scared and then dissapointed that they didn’t die so they proclaimed the virus was “just a flue” and continue to let others die as if nothing is wrong.
You can see busses on the tram lines – trams did not drive for a while after the earthquake. The few people that are on the street walking in the middle of the usually very busy road filled with trams and cars, so that pieces of buildings don’t fall on them. I especially like the photo where the guy with a mask and the mobile phone is looking up a building.
The two panoramas of the city taken from Zagreb Upper Town may look out of place to you, but if you look closely, you’ll see the air is thick and muddy – it was full of Sahara desert sand, which additionally contributed to the apocalyptic atmosphere. The penultimate photo shows the earthquake damaged top of one of the cathedral towers with people on the street waiting in front of the bank keeping distance between each other.
Unfortunately this was the only negative I shot during that time in 35 mm format. I genuinely miss those times. It felt like we, humans, were able to finally show that it was possible to care about each other. Unfortunately we’ve shown that most people are stupid, evil, or both. We have not yet mentally evolved to understand and accept the scientific reality that we live in. It’s obviously much easier not to care about others, the environment or science. Oh the Earth will recover allright. It’s just a shame that human creativity will not be preserved when our civilization ceases to exist.
