Doin' Laundry in Prague

I write from the computer here at the launrodmat in Prague. Although I have a week left, I need to get some clean clothes as I have begun to reach the end of my outfit choices!

The laundromat is really cool! I love it! I would actually hang out here even if I wasn't doing laundry! They offer complimentary tea and coffee served on these cute little trays. There are tables to read at and there's a little lounge area with comfy red couches. The decor is funky with pictures of Prague and pictures of black and white Ansel Adams-y shots hanging on light blue walls. Odd and weird murals are painted at the front desk area. It's a place for travelers to come to relax while they take care of laundry.

We had a great trip to the Moravian wine region this weekend. Jan's trip was packed full of activities and meeting photographers. It was kind of comical because he rented this bus that just exactly held our number of people. So, there we were with 20 people stuffed close together in this van-like blue bus. As we traveled, it felt smaller and smaller. Rather like a large clown car.

We met two photographer friends of Jan in the two of Brno. Yup--no vowel there! But, it's pronounced like "Bruno". These were two of the "younger" genereation as Jan kept saying. Basically, they are around my age. We went to this young photographer's apartment. He was very welcoming of us and invited us into his living room. His wife had made delicious peach coffee cake and he offered us mate, a tea. Then, we all sat around as he showed us his actual prints of his work. It was amazing to be so casually looking at this stuff on his living room floor! And such a privilege to get his running commentary on it as he displayed each print. His work is related to the idea of mandala. He takes one image and then rotates it around the page four times so that it becomes abstract. Some look like mandalas others like kaleidoscopic images. I really liked the work--especially because of the abstract qualities the everyday scenes he took possessed once he put them in this form. He and his wife live this hippy artistic lifestyle. They played this low, kind of haunting and charming music the entire time we were there. Their other hobbies are building a Cob house (I don't know much about this, but he said that is his bigger hobby...beyond photography...) But, even for this "small" photography hobby of his, he won a competition and then recevied this huge exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Not bad!

Then another artist arrived at this man's house. We had already seen an exhibition of his work at the Leica Gallery in Prague two weeks ago, so it was fun to actually meet him. He does black and white and showed us his prints too--there on the living room floor! He described the way that he has fought to remain independent from doing any commercial photography, even though it is of course, financially challenging for him to do so! Both of these guys said how they don't have enough money to have a full darkroom, so they do all of their developing in their own bathrooms!

It was great to see the camaraderie between the two of them, and even cuter to see our photography teachers kind of sparring with them and teasing them about being younger. Jan made jokes with them like, "Ok--so, you say you will never go over to digital --just you wait! You won't be able to be pure for so long!" It's fun to see the way people in a field see the world together and interact with each other. Often I don't get to see several artists in the same field together. Jan and Miro, the teachers we have had in Prague these weeks, were great on the trip as they would come up with creative shots on the spot and then order us to get into place to do them! And Jan would tease Miro about his bad camera or how slow he was being in setting up a shot! Very adorable.

The night we arrived at our hotel Jan had arranged for us to be at this photography workshop. The Czech Republic's most respected photographer Jindrich Streit presented his work and gave a narrative of his techniques. He also showed a short film on his work and then answered questions. He had been arrested because of his photos (sometimes he used the photos to voice his disagreement with the regime) and taken from his job as a teacher and headmaster during the Communist Era. He was forced to work on a cooperative farm and then came back to photography in 1989. Since that time he has published many books and had many exhibits.

One more photographer finished off the evening workshop by showing his work. I liked it a lot--especially his scenes of public spaces. He is doing a project where he photos the sort of ignored landscapes that we see everyday and stop noticing. He had shots of parking lots, gas stations, train stations, etc etc. I have always had this idea of photographing parking lots as I think they are sort of this forgotten public space that we could use for more than we do. Like, at night, when cars are gone, they just sit there, empty, and they have this poignant kind of emptiness about them. Both dramatic and boring at the same time. So, encouraged to see that this work is something others are looking at, I am going to go out and photograph parking lots when I get home!

We stayed up having wine after the workshop--the wine right from the vineyards nearby. Delicious and sweet. The next day we saw a lot of small towns with castles. The bus trip home was hilarious because everyone had bought wine and started passing around bottles on the bus. Miro, our teacher, was quite jolly and having a good time with the wine too. And, of course, all of this was on the world's smallest bus as the Czech countryside flew by. It was a trip home to remember!

Well, my laundry may be done. This is our last week coming up. And, while I will be sad to go, I also feel like I still have a whole week, and, already, today, I can feel that I am getting to know the city more and have more of a feel for it. So, I am enjoying the experience of letting the city sink in and make an impression on me.

This week we will be seeing Ivan Klima, a major Czech writer who also spent time in Terezin concentration camp. I purchased his book The Spirit of Prague and have been reading it here at the laundromat in anticipation of seeing him speak. It is quite interesting what he has to say about writing under the communist regime and the ways writers had to fight to preserve their artistic voice while also still keeping their jobs and lives under the regime. He also talks in the book about the underground publishing movement that happened. I think he may talk more about that this week in the speech he gives. Looking forward to it.

Final thoughts--today, as I was listening to the Czech language being spoken around me on the tram, it occurred to me that it is sometimes one of the best things to immerse yourself in a world where no one speaks the same language. And, while it can be frustrating sometimes to communicate (and really, for the most part, people know English) there is a beauty to having a foreign language and culture around you. It's a way of seeing the variety and complexity of life. And, sometimes I think in the globalization of a lot of our culture, it seems like we are being dumbed down to the extent that everything is understandable--languages are the same, stores are the same, music is the same. Everything becomes mind numbingly understandable-- culture can become oppressive in its complete and utter simplicity! And so, it can feel like a kind of poetry or music to sit on a train and hear this language being spoken around you that you don't understand. Czech's complexity as a language is discussed by everyone in our program as we try to learn even the fewest expressions! And yet, I think it is this complexity and richness within any culture that makes our lives richer. Here's to preserving the not easily accessible or understandable!