Hallo! As you probably have noticed, activity went down and we’ve been quiet… It’s because we’ve been very busy with work, tired, and we both needed a good resting. And the polls in France are also part of the general busy-keeping things. I hope that soon Laurence and myself will find some time to go out take photos and have fun!

All the best for now!
Max

Cheese! (selfportrait)

La miss … (photo by Max)

From the airport…. to the panelak.. through the motorway.

Do not be fast! You are not allowed to drive faster than 70…. if you catch the message!

Laurence

This weekend proved to be a good “window” for some light microraïoning with Laurence. I am still feeling ill and it’s taking a while to recover from this cold, but look what I’ve prepared for you. Nothing really special, just some saturday night microraïon

These photos (except the 1st one, taken with a 50/1.5 Jupiter-3) were all taken with the Zeiss Tessar 28mm f/8 lens (the lens is from 1936-1940) and my Zeiss-Ikon Contax IIIa camera (from 1952). Film is fomapan 400 developed in Ilfotec LC29 (dilution 1+19, developing time 7 minutes at 20°C).

Laurence photos will arrive either tonight or tomorrow evening, I’ll pick up her roll of film in an hour or so. I hope to be feeling better this weekend for more microraïon!

Cheers,
Max

Dear friends!

This weekend, Microraïon takes a break, so things will be quiet. Laurence is heading to Barcelona for the weekend, she borrowed my Kiev-2A, the Jupiter-8 50mm f/2 lens, and the yellow filter, yay! And me … well… I’ve got the tonsils so no photos, no going out, no swimming and no Six Nations Rugby Cup watching with friends.

I’ll be developing some photos however, and I’ll probably end up posting them (since they’re not part of the project) on my Flickr account. I hope that Laurence will also sign up for a Flickr account once she’ll start doing her own “homework”

Because I first thought I would be using my lightmeter this weekend (that was before I went to the doctor), I prepared her a very nice no battery exposimeter ! It made us remember the “kids activities” that we used to do at school around 5-7 years old

Peace and all the best,
Max

Yep, stay tuned for more “Happy Days”

As Laurence said below in her (first) post, we headed to another suburb of Prague this weekend. Laurence was equipped with my Kiev-2A, its original Jupiter-8 50mm f/2 and a yellow filter. I had the occasion to try my freshly received Zeiss-Ikon Contax IIIa rangefinder, fitted with a 50mm f/1.5 Jupiter-3. Having both rangefinders, explanations about how to take photos were easier.

I am sending a little selection of my photos. I must say that those of Laurence completely blow me away, especially her futuristic photo of the subway aerian link between station Rajska Zahrada and Cerny Most.

this one is my most favourite of hers

All the photos are negative scans. They were taken on Fomapan 400 film, developed in Ilfotec LC-29 1+19 solution at 20°C for 8 minutes.

My second lesson of taking pictures seems to have been pretty successful thanks to my teacher Max and also to the camera, an old Kiev 2A.

A suburb called Cerny Most. Pretty new area. Conceived without any urban plan. Surrealistic.

The conclusion of our escapade was to see, as we were emerging from the subway, an ugly wall with a message written in french, as you can see on the picture. The spirit of Paris somehow lost in Kolbenova….

Laurence

Dear visitors, due to a little bug in our provider system that is being solved, if you do not see the page theme correctly, please use CTRL+F5 to force your browser to reload the page.

We are very much looking forward to take new photos this weekend, and for a double reason : I will probably be lending Laurence my Kiev-2A, a wonderful rangefinder that is sentimentally very precious to me, and I will probably be taking photos with my “almost here” Zeiss Contax-IIIa ! (hoping to get it tomorrow *dances*)

Meanwhile stay tuned and please do continue to send us your feedback and comments, those are very appreciated. We would also like to thank you so much for the enthusiastic and warm welcome our project received.

Thank you once more!
Max

P.S. : Laurence will soon start to blog as well. We have both been extremely busy with work this week and we’ve had no time to sit and explain her all of the things its possible to do with WordPress!

A beautiful sunday - Max

Panelák is the colloquial name of blocks of high-rise panel buildings in the Czech Republic constructed of pre-fabricated, pre-stressed concrete. It is estimated that 33% of the Czech population lives in a panelák.

I used to live for one year and half in a panelák,  it was spacious and comfortable. Neighbors are generally courteous and polite. Despite the evident ugliness of the buildings, I had the chance to have a beautiful view on the nature, without any building in sight in front of my balcony.

More infos here. That’s all for tonight!

Our “first” exploration of Prague suburbs.

We met people.

From the tram window - Max

Old Lady & Tram - Laurence

Sunday Walk - Max

Triplet - Laurence

Urban Species - Max

We also saw trains.

Train Station - Laurence

Train arriving - Max

Waiting - Laurence

Train detail - Max   (P.S. : I like trains!)

 There were also vehicles & lorries

Sad Tourist - Max

Starting blocks - Max

Tatra - Max

Offices for rent - Max

Voila for now!

Welcome on this photoblog. I am Max, photographer, and here’s Laurence, who’s beginning her journey into photography. We decided to start the Microraïon project after a prolific and interesting exploration of the unknown, industrial, soviet-era suburbs of the “socialist” Prague.

Why Microraïon ?

We could’ve called this project Prague la Rouge, Praga la Rossa or even something more funky, but we thought that we needed a unique word, original and functionalistic. This is where Microraïon comes.

According to Wikipedia, here is what we can learn about Microraïon :

Microdistrict, or microraion (Russian: микрорайо́н), is a residential compound—a primary structural element of the residential area construction in the Soviet Union and in some post-Soviet states. Residential districts in most of the cities and towns in Russia and the republics of the former Soviet Union were built in accordance with this concept.

According to the Construction Rules and Regulations of the Soviet Union, a typical microdistrict covered the area of 10–60 hectares (30–160 acres), up to but not exceeding 80 hectares (200 acres) in some cases, and comprised residential dwellings (usually multi-story apartment buildings) and public service buildings. As a general rule, major motor roads, greenways, and natural obstacles served as boundaries between microdistricts, allowing an overall reduction in city road construction and maintenance costs and emphasizing public transportation. Major motor roads or through streets were not to cross microdistricts’ territories. The entrances to a microdistrict’s territory were to be located no further than 300 meters (1000 feet) apart.

Standards also regulated the accessibility of the public service buildings (excluding schools and pre-school facilities) by imposing a 500-meter (1,500–foot) limit as the farthest distance from any residential dwelling. One of the city-planners’ tasks was to ensure that the fewest number of public buildings was built to cover the microdistrict’s territory in accordance with the norms. Typical public service structures include secondary schools, pre-school establishments (usually combined kindergarten and nursery), grocery stores, personal service shops, cafeterias, clubs, playgrounds, and building maintenance offices, as well as a number of specialized shops. The exact number of buildings of each type depended on the distance requirement and the microdistrict’s population density and was determined by means of certain per capita standards.