Minov Portfolio

live forever

Get on that train, get on that tram, get on that bus, cause they’re all really meant to go somewhere… that place is not a big surprise, and you don’t want one anyway… you need to keep it warm, put some thick chocolate in, browse the shops, pick up a flier or catch sight of something worthy through a flying window… then you can decide if you go here or there… snow falling on channels, in a quiet, soft night… we walk on to the next bar, or maybe it’s even finally time for that midnight coffee… we live in a shipping container for a week and the water heater keeps steady almost all the time… we shop for cheap food that is so good, we love the bread, we love the cheese… we go to see the artist with the cut-off ear and his ear is the last thing we care about… his work is thorough – I love this word… never thought of his work as thorough, genius explained in a short stroll… libraries await and people in them seem warm and calm… there is a time and a place for everything and everyone, if your temperament is(…)

Click to continue reading “already in memory”

already in memory

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Here is a very good article on the nature of our combat with climate change, the change we need to make in our approach to climate change, the uselessness of Copenhagen-style forums… with its realism and soberness, it kind of gives me hope all is not doomed. It’s a long article, be warned.

changing climate change

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Before the birth 2

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Kalo, days before Boryanka.

Before the birth 1

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Adi, days before Boryanka.

Tales of a mother

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A portrait of Vera during a girls talk in the living room. Most of the talk was about pregnancy, babies, giving birth, etc. – what with two pregnant girls in the room. I spent most of my time – and did most of my shooting in the kitchen, with the nargile. By the way, I hate the way some of the portrait-layout photos have to be cropped to fit into this website’s design. I know I wanted it this way, but some time I’ll have to figure out a new way to present them, especially having in mind the amount of portrait pics I post.

B&W smoke

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A take on Rado smoking the same nargile, same night.

The crazy duduk player

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Denkisa does some hardcore nargile (hookah) smoking during a recent get-together at Kalo and Adi’s place, several days before the birth of their daughter, Boryana. I’m still to see (and take pictures of) the little peanut…

Interestingly enough, I watched through this entire movie thinking I was seeing Steven Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience. Soderbergh’s film was released an year later, in 2009, and I’ve no idea who borrowed ideas from whom, if at all… but apart from unsuccessfully straining to recognize Sasha Grey (who plays the main part in The Girlfriend Experience), I had no doubt I was watching a Soderbergh film. Pietrobruno’s GFE has the same structural boldness and self-referential elements as Full Frontal, for instance. Made as a fiction-documentary, or better said, documentarised fiction, it centres on the dissolving life of a man obsessed with paid sex. In particular, with an expensive provider of special sex+emotions services, known as girlfriend experience (GFE). Pietrobruno has a background in documentary film editing, which probably explains to some extent the assuredness with which she tackles the unorthodox narrative form. The movie is interspersed with fake “re-enactments” – episodes in which the main character, Daniel, plays himself, while another actress plays the part of Adrian, his GFE love interest. So you get an actress playing the role of another role played by another actress… sounds a bit too complicated, but it’s basically a movie within the movie, and(…)

Click to continue reading “GFE: Girlfriend Experience, 2008 / Ileana Pietrobruno”

GFE: Girlfriend Experience, 2008 / Ileana Pietrobruno

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Flea-market: The dreamer

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Soaking the view like a zen-master…