B&W Retrospective

I occasionally like to go back trough recent photos and see if any would be improved by conversion to B&W. I believe that a few of these from Budapest fill the bill. See what you think. Above and below are image from the Dohany Street Synagogue.



I think the strong geometrical patterns make this a good candidate for this treatment.

The brooding, dramatic skies over the statue of Szt. Istvan in front of the Országház, the Hungarian Parliament Building, create an ominous scene.

On the other side the building stand this monument to Tisza István again with the foreboding sky above. Although, I suppose that the pigeon on the head of the figure on the right kind of gives it away.

This fellow is an important figure in the history of Hungary. Wikipedia tells us

Count István Tisza de Borosjenő et Szeged (archaically English: Stephen Tisza; 22 April 1861 – 31 October 1918) was a Hungarian politician, prime minister, political scientist, international lawyer, macroeconomist, and member of Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The prominent event in his life was Austria-Hungary's entry into the First World War when he was prime minister for the second time. He was later assassinated during the Aster Revolution on 31 October 1918 - the same day that Hungary terminated its political union with Austria. Tisza supported the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary and was representative of the then liberal-conservative consent.

On the bus we take from our house here, is a square (a tér in Hungarian) named for him. So we knew the name well before we had any idea who he was.

This backlit statue of a young woman in the Új Köztemető, the New Public Cemetery, I found interesting for several reasons. First, since this is not a figure proportioned according to the classical standards usually chosen for angels and cherubs, I strongly suspect that this is a likeness of the deceased. Secondly, with a little help (and really only a little) the backlight creates a glow on her that lifts her out of the darkened trees in the background giving one the feeling that she is, perhaps, still standing there and watching the world go past.

This marker, the first one I photographed in this cemetery, is just eerie and begged for the B&W treatment to accent the textures and the ribs. Without color to distract, you can now really see the sitting nude woman on the lower right. A woman mourning the loss of her husband seems likely. She watches as Death plays his mournful tune.

Finally, we have one of those classically proportioned angels that is also lit in such a way that she stands out from the darker background. For me, the only thing that makes her look frozen in time are the darker striations running diagonally from upper left to lower right through the marble that give away the fact that she is stone. I keep feeling that she will unfurl her wings, smile, and fly away at any moment.