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Architecture Bucureşti

Architecture Bucureşti
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    • Architecture Bucureşti
  • 2001
  • 26 b&w photographs
The work “Architecture Bucureşti” consists of 26 unique photographs made by street portrait photographer Nea’ Costica in accordance with the artist’s instructions. These pictures deal with urban wasteland as well as with the construction and deconstruction of both new and old buildings. Taken with an old-fashioned plate camera as a reference to the uniqueness of each photograph, which exists in both positive and negative prints, the individual images show Bucharest’s phase of urban transformation and the ambiguities of its changing urban outlook. The black-and white prints put the city in a somewhat spooky light as a place where corruption and dubious business activities are still very much present. Meeting standards set by the EU continues to be a difficult task for a place that was long viewed as Communism’s largest city and is gradually adapting to general European norms. And the reform of urban planning has become a task that still seems daunting with regard both to the city’s past and to its future. W.S.