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Working in the industry once in your life makes you sensitive to it forever. Speaking of Advertising, I love it, and all the more so when I come across odd posters. The one in the photo hangs (probably used to?) on an underground station in Yekaterinburg. Going to the gym has never been so promising, I guess. Or so disturbing?
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| A Fitness Club advert on Yekaterinburg underground |
Apparently, these two buildings that nowadays both belong to the Yekaterinburg Academy of Architecture (founded in 1972) have been a kind of smithy of the future Arts (Cinema, Music) figures. The Academy has a partnership with the University of Huddersfield in student exchange. As for the small wooden building, I invite you to take a good look at the decorated window frames. Yekaterinburgs and its environs are full of houses like this one, offering a great chance to study the timberwork and wooden decorations of the past centuries.
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| An ordinary metro station… |
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| …and the guy by the wall |
Back in 2007 I told a tearful story of how I was trying to take a picture of Myron’s Discobolus at the British Museum in London. To refresh or to find out, read The Story of Discobolus.
But no, they didn’t move. They were totally oblivious to the fact that the British Museum is one of London’s principal attractions and is visited by thousands of people each day who may fancy taking a picture of Discobolus. I put it down to the special feelings they shared. Me, I was alone, and my despair was beyond imagination.
Now wait! The citizens of Yekaterinburg don’t even have to go to the British Museum to see (and photograph) the famous guy. They simply have to go to Dynamo metro station. How cool is that?
There stands the famous Discobolus, on a high pedestal, available to snap from any imaginable angle. As there were no vases or staircases around (unlike the British Museum), I opted for a photosession presenting the athlete at his physical best. And I make no apology for actually indulging in the process.
I believe this was my revanche for the 2007 fiasco.
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| Citius, Altius, Fortius! (Faster, Higher, Stronger!) |
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| Love locks tree, Moscow |
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| Wedding rings, Moscow |
When I returned to Moscow nearly a year ago, I was surprised to eventually discover that one of the bridges that is very popular with newlyweds has acquired this lovely sculpture (left). Little did I know that the tree you can see through the ring is made of… locks. This tradition sees couples sign the lock with their names and hand it on a tree, a suitable structure, or a bridge. This September I saw locks adorning the bridge in Yekaterinburg.
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| Love locks in Moscow |
If you are running short of ideas for your wedding, this might be the one to use.
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| Love locks in Yekaterinburg |
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| Grand Duke and Duchess |
Some 15 years ago a teacher of Literature at my school lent me a book to read. In the wake of budding interest in the tragic history of the end of the Romanovs dynasty in Russia, the book was among the best ones, not least because it stayed away from presenting its main subject in the strictly political light.
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| Martha and Mary Convent, Moscow |
It was a biography of the Holy New Martyr Grand Duchess Elizaveta Fyodorovna, a sister-in-law to Nicholas II of Russia. She married the Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich and eventually converted to Orthodox religion. Her husband was killed in a blast in 1905. Following this, the Grand Duchess became a nun and founded a well-known Martha and Mary Convent in Moscow that has survived to this day. However, in 1918 she and several Grand Dukes were taken to Alapaevsk, near Yekaterinburg, from where they were transported to Verkhnyaya Sinyachikha, pushed into a mineshaft, into which hand grenades were hurled.
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| A memorial cross at the mineshaft |
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| The mineshaft |
Hardly a Monarchist, I nevertheless wanted to see places associated with the demise of the Romanovs dynasty. So, when I found out that we’d be passing Alapaevsk and the unfortunate mineshaft on our way to and from the open-air museum of wooden architecture in Nizhnyaya Sinyachikha, I begged to make a stop at the place where the Grand Duchess had her life ended. The mine is now on the territory of a monastery, where there grow amazingly sweet apples, runs a clean spring, and stands a church to St. Elizabeth.
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| The icon of the Holy New Martyr |
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| The chancel of St. Elizabeth |
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| The monastery entrance |
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| A service at the monastery |
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| The monastery interior |
