Taman Ulu

Lush tropical highland garden of Taman Ulu, Tabanan, Bali

Giardino Giusti, Verona

The only day I get to spend in Verona is a rainy day.
There, I spent the day (yesterday) with dripping wet bag and soaked feet, which is probably why I am having headaches right now. But the good thing is, the rain makes the experience of the garden feel more somber and melamcholic. It also drives away other visitors, and even the ticketing person! Making the garden visit a free entry for me, and me alone for the hour.





Walking in this garden makes you feel that you are in another era, and that's a no wonder, when you read its long established history:

Built in 1570, the basic design of this Giardino Giusti is almost half a millennia old. And if that is not old enough, they say that parts of the garden is even older than that, with 700-year old cypresses predating the foundation of the garden. The elaborate myrtle hedges however, is a later addition from the 1786.

The garden is one of the oldest in Italy, and has been called the most important of the renaissance gardens. Since the 16th century, a trip to the garden is usually included as a part of the Grand Tour (educational trips of young aristrocats), and it has had illustrious visitors, including Mozart and Goethe, who supposedly wrote one of his books under its towering cypresses.

Millesgården

Day 115 - Solo Notte

Imagine the nights in the city, walking to Piazzola's haunting music, 'Oblivion' (The music will take a few second to load, then press play):





Sad, eh? Welcome to Rome, at midnight.
Coming from me, these photographs are a little cliché. Moody orange lights, lonely figures traversing the night, a glacé of sadness and ephemerality... It has similar themes with the one I worked with during the IB years in Melbourne. It seems that once I get the gist of it, I can continuously producing this genre of photographs. Yes, yes, an orchestra of loneliness (how ironic!). Speaking of Melbourne, these nights I kept on thinking: "I don't want to leave Rome... " just like how it was back then. Roma, ti amo.

Day 103 - Stranieri Conosciuti

'Stranieri Conosciuti: Strangers who are familiar to us' is a photo essay project for my photography class. Inspired by the Rose Man shot, I started of with the theme of photographing immigrants. What eventually emerge out of this search is a series of photographs of street peddlers of the tourist Rome: rose men, bubble gun seller, street performers, and gypsies. They are people whose gaze we often try to avert on the street, and yet amidst the place of transient tourists, it is them who becomes the familiar faces of the street.

Three weeks, 365 photographs later, here are the classic 8 that I presented on Tuesday. They were lovingly printed on A3 semi-gloss:

Day 87 - Buona Domenica!

Here they say Buona Domenica! (Happy Sunday!)
Yesterday was a splendidly sunny Sunday in Rome.
Something to celebrate indeed!



A man was seen selling roses for a euro each in Piazza del Popolo.

A woman was seen cycling near the Giolitti gelato shop.

Stephanie was seen gorging the warm golden sunlight.

Day 54 - Storytelling Portraiture

Our assignment today for photo class is to take 60 portrait of a person. I worked with Mike, but I failed to tease him out, and you can tell from the photographs: he looks cute, but you don't get a sense of his personality. Who is Mike?



In the end, I still didn't know him.
Oh well! So I ended up stalking the teacher instead...


Which was a lot of fun.
Can you tell? Open the image large... feel the difference!

She's out there teaching, with her face and her hand. She has a sense of purpose of being in there, and she does not mind the prying lens. Now tell me, is it my clouded opinion about the persons, or is it really the portraits?

(Liana hates sepia, because she thinks its forced. So I'll switch. Earlier above is the CYMK grayscale, noticably warmer than the RGB grayscale which you are seeing now). Look, look. This is what she thinks of it...


She curls up her lips and looked to the sky.
She grins and looked sideways,
And laughed.


She thinks it has a potential,
But she's not sure,
Naaah. She withdraws her thoughts.


Bwahahaah. I'm a stalker!


Enough of this joke. I'm tired...


Calm down, Sephiee... take a deep breath.


Now, should I submit this as homework?


YES!

Day 43-48 - Southern Trip (Part II: Napoli)

This beautiful black labrador followed us for hours from dusk to night, from the sea and through the city. It treated us like a herd of sheep, ran around us to keep us together and barked at any incoming people, motorcycles and cars. At times we thought that he would disappear into the streets, but we were wrong! It followed us ever so faithfully until he couldn't anymore.

Resilient and weathered. Our Neapolitan tour guide has a severe look to her that seems to say that she has seen the darker stories of Napoli. Ah, if only I knew enough Italian to ask "Tell me..."


Boy with the expression of an old man.


Local Neapolitan boys who approached us in fascination with the camera.


I wish I could forget about this photo. This boy ran around the street with a plastic pistol air gun. He looks, aims, and shoots at you. You can hear the air bullets firing *Tor!!! Torr!!* You know it's fake, but you can't help but feel unsettled: anyone, everyone... he wants them all dead.

Day 30 - Palestrina, Villa d'Este and Villa Hadrian

An old, cranky, but funny bedevil of a man led our tour today. He called us wuss for pulling out umbrellas when it rains, threatened execution for sitting down after a tired walk, and gleefully announced that latecomers be stoned publicly. He made all fifty of us ran up the (at least!) 20 meters (60 feet/6 floors) worth of stairs and slopes to the Temple of Fortune at Palestrina. When we got up, to the temple we it was foggy, and all we could see is white.


This is the guy. Jan Gadeyne lectures with his eyes closed. He imagines the reconstruction of the ruins in his mind, and illustrates it with his animated hands. Only when he closes his eyes for his 10-20 second stretches, would dare snap a picture of him. He is an intimidating teacher, my favorite kind actually. Still, I don't want him to remember my name for fear of public shaming.


The sky later clears out to reveal an amazing, breathtaking view of the town of Tivoli. Now... what should I say about Francy? He's hungry.


Joy the architect, envisioning a new Villa to rival d'Este.


Villa d'Este is the Disneyland of the renaissance. It was built in 1550, and even now it is still full of its original giochi d' aqua (water games). Splashes of water amusement beauties is played out in this filthy rich villa... giant water fountains that smells of moss, hundred fountain wall, fanning out water fountains, drinkable Pandora's fountain and so on. The list is exhaustive. We had to run through this place in an hour though! And so we only got to skim it. I really should take my time to come back there and describe the villa in better detail.


Maritime theatre at the Hadrian's Villa is thought to be a retreat room for the emperor Hadrian himself. This circular room consist of a circular island is built within the room... think of it as the best spa boutique you could find in the 2nd century.


Me and Alejandra, and Francy outside of Villa d'Este


Libby and Alejandra, my roomates! (To your right is the gorgeous ass of a marble Hadrian's)

It has been a breathtaking day... I'm honestly too lazy to edit and post the rest of the scenic pictures. Maybe another day.

Day 16 -A Daytour of Rome

For once, I'm glad that Cornell dragged us out on this mandatory field trip. It was a beautiful day, and the sun is shining full on, subduing the cold winter air and making this an ideal photographing day.





San Giovanni Laterano is the most important Cathedral of Rome. More than the St. Peter's of the Vatican, This church is the original seat of papacy, and was so for over a millenia, The doors of the church is about 5 meters high, and is decorated with equally gargantuan marble statues of the twelve apostles, like the one below:





Dinner at the L'Archetto (The Archer), a lovely pasta specialty restaurant near the Trevi fountain.