Aurel Manea Photography

I may have mentioned some years ago ( back when I was little , my viewers were 100% Romanian and the purpose of the blog was more of impressing a certain beautiful girl), about what lays just beyond the Bulgarian border.Now years went by like summer storms, things have changed a lot but stayed the same and here we are again.
A rock’s throw away from the summer beach party center of Romania, Vama Veche, the sand turns into rocks , the water becomes clearer and gains color. Gone is the floating garbage, gone is the drunk crowd stepping on each other, gone all the people and all the cars. Perfect spot to enjoy a couple of days away from everyone and everything, to take a deep dive, do a bit of rock climbing or just enjoy a morning walk. All this still close enough to the party for those allergic to solitude.
To be continued… Some day.

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Darklands

- So. How was it ?
- Interesting I guess. A tad too long, the second part was so repetitive that I thought it will never end.
- Wasn’t that the whole point ?
-Yes, I know, but it just went on forever. And first I tough I was watching a soap opera and then it was combination of  Kaufman , Jarmush and a bit of Woody. Fresh approach yes, but maybe overdone.
-You know they say the director came drunk many times on the set. He would re-take the same scene hundred of times, exhaust the actors beyond recognition until they looked and behaved the way he wanted. Sometimes he didn’t even come to the set so the actors would film themselves by reflex. The last part was shot entirely without him.
-Experimental, eh ?
-Quite so. Were there a lot of people ?
-Not really. Most  were friends of the main actor and people he invited for free in the street. Many of them did not even know what they came for. Some were playing on their phones, others making out and some were just enjoying the image with headphones on. Very  few really watched .
-Why did you go  ?
-Well I heard it was supposed to be interesting and and  I was intrigued by the mixed reviews. That and the fact that the director chose to screen it only once and then burn the rolls.
-How did you feel about the main character and his “romance” ?
-Strange, like he no longer found a place in the world and sought  it in the only place he knew and made sense anymore, where it all began and all rest ended, in her.Like a broken record. And the more he struggled the deeper in his own situation got stuck. There was the bar scene where the friend said: “You know you give this image of such a melodramatic bullshitter that people can’t take you seriously. They can’t see the problems, they can’t see how deep they go and the nature of the damage” . The character and story  was much more complex than the poster and tag line said. Quite misleading indeed, that tag line .
-And her ?
-Well I can’t be sure if she was even real or not. The way she changed the look and expression, the way she faded from scene to scene. The script doesn’t let the viewer see the real person behind that very often. Even when we do see her, we don’t really. She herself acts different in the context, reacting towards him in seemingly unnatural ways. And the movie is made so we perceive her like he does. I think that’s the whole point. And I also think it may have all been a metaphor for a semi-purgatory.
-For both ?
-Like I said, she was very ambiguous so there was no way to tell. Perhaps. For him, yes. That or a very weird situation .
-What about the twist in the end ?
-I don’t know if it can be called a twist. May have been the only natural way to end the movie.
…………….
And a very unrelated photo. Or a photo with a very unrelated text.

Calm yourself, old boy. Breathe in. Breathe out. Find the reason. Remember. Retrace.
Follow your footsteps in the past. See them fade away, changing shape and pace as if they constantly belonged to someone else. They did. You died a long time ago, you have died many times and you’ve been reborn as many. You woke up today a stranger from the world and from yourself.
All you know now is that beautiful place she once created in the future with the whisper of a few words, the place you blindly walk towards, the place that bears her name. A place so beautiful that its distant echoes go through your dreams when you sleep, making it real as if you had already been there, a long time ago, perhaps in another life. You can finally rest there, for the first time in your life.

There is a place I know behind the Sun. It’s the place where we can start again.
One road that leads to it, paved with remains of  today and the ashes of tomorrow . It’s my road alone to walk.

I’m gonna write a little “subjective review” regarding this little toy. Thing is I got tired of missing shots just because I cannot carry my camera with me. It’s just too big ! So I had to find myself a dslr-like camera with a large sensor and interchangeable lens. And only choice was between the nex-3 or 5 and a micro four thirds camera (but the sensor is too small for my taste). Here are a couple of shots made in the first day of tests using the 18-55 kit lens (until I will buy a prime). Anyway, first impressions are good.