A Fluid Drop Part One

                                                                      the lock opens at Gabcikovo  Slovakia

Bratislava - Belgrade - Seged

Danube - Sava - Danube - Tisza

 A two week trip down the Danube to Serbia, the freedom to make whatever I wanted as a way of documenting the trip and a chance to experience something new. I had an evening to decide and the words “It will change your life” from Robert, an Austrian boat fanatic I had just met bouncing around my head. I had crossed the channel on a ferry in 2004 when I first came to Slovakia and many years before that I took a ship from Dacha to Marmaris in Turkey, but neither could compare to travelling down Europe's second largest river, through three countries on a small boat.

Leaving the marina in Bratislava the skies darkened and rain spattered across the windscreen, after a few miles the wind picked up and the boat, due to its flat bottomed design started to thud heavily against the oncoming waves. We were going at full speed as we had limited time to reach the lock at Gabcikovo which would open only one more time that day and it was essential that we pass through in order to continue to our first planned port of call, the city of Gyor in Hungary.

Gabcikovo is the only lock on the Danube between Vienna and Budapest and the river at Baka on the approach is 131m above sea level, at some points the river is higher than the surrounding trees, giving way to strong winds and big waves. As we entered the lock waiting there were a Romanian freighter and a large tourist boat; a floating hotel with its engine running. All this combined to make dangerous conditions as our small boat was tossed around like a toy in the lock. After two failed attempts at trying to moor, we were slammed into the wall of the lock with such force that suddenly I realised our trip could end here, we were running out of time and space, the gate was closing and the water level would soon be changing by 19 meters. It all started to look like disaster when our luck changed and the captain of the Romanian ship shouted for us to pull alongside and throw up a rope. One last chance to turn the boat, I threw the rope, he caught it and we secured against the freighter, saved. It was only then I realised our small drama had played out to an audience of around 70 people gathered on the bridge that crossed the dam, Sunday entertainment for the locals and again those words echoing inside like a ghostly piano melody “this will change your life”.

Shadows

Zrkadlo

                                                                                                                                     Dobra Voda              Summer         2017

Kopac

Installation from Vienna

Text for exhibition

The brightest light can cast the deepest shadow

Is a meditation on loss and the temporary nature of relationships; from dark into light and returning back into darkness.

A long journey and an attempt to find direction and capture a hopeful instinctive reaction to an overwhelming physical and emotional sense of loss and an attempt to find healing in the simple beauty of my surroundings.

The process of looking, feeling, and reacting by taking a photograph was the start of a positive dialogue between myself and life, and as we are so often reflecting on our past or projecting an uncertain future, it became a record of being there in the moment. 

Just as in relationships the combination of looking and feeling and deciding is often of more significant importance than that of describing and justifying. The images are not only a representation of my feelings, but they have taken on a greater role in helping me to more understand loss and grief, the patience necessary to start to heal and how precious and momentary is the gift of life. 

Andrew Hillard

May 2017

The tree of life

                                                                                                 Bratislava  Summer    2016

Help each other.
Love everyone.
Every leaf.
Every ray of light.
Forgive.

The solitude of ravens by Masahisa Fukase

"Karusu"

Breathtaking

Invitation

Test prints for Vienna

I will have my first solo exhibition in Vienna, opening on Saturday 10th June, during Vienna Photobook Festival.

the fruit of some trees can be found in their shade

Escaping the hot afternoon sun
in the shade under some trees
the sound of birds high overhead
something landed next to me
the fragile remnants of a shell
at just that very moment
another life had been born

voyager

take me skyward

Cormac

Repeated time and time again the book I just finished reading, our lives have their own plan and ultimately our destiny is fixed and can not be altered. We try to shape that which can't be shaped, just as we attempt to deny the undeniable. When we dream of the past, we dream of something dead among the living, we are witness to an event that never was and a memory that will never be understood.

lietavice

ambien

Spring at Mileticova

as the day starts to fade

i'm here, but I want to be there

                                                                       Bratislava    2017

Otto's kitchen window

                                   Bratislava        Feb        2017

We talked about history, and life. He told me how he first met Miro. We drank filter coffee and laughed at the taste. We swapped recipes for the best way to prepare garlic, wether to crush or chop. He said how at his age, everyday is a gift, and that his brother and sister died much younger many years ago. He pointed to his little finger and said that life is this short. The sun came in through his kitchen windows and lit up the room, and both of us smiled.

Krzysztof Gieraltowski

Krzysztof Gieraltowski

Today I saw an amazing exhibition of portraits by the Polish photographer Krzysztof Gieraltowski. There were almost 100 portraits, all shot on 35 film, and no two faces or expressions looked the same. He managed to capture the often hidden intensity of a persons interior world in moments that appeared candid and honest.

are they hearts or only shadows?

collapsed habitats in a permeating darkness

                                             broken light                 Bratislava                 2017

I want to know how things work, how to fix them when they are broken and when to leave them alone if they can't be fixed.

The Fall