Streetlamp Shadows - Project Log

Streetlamp Shadows is going to be a short series of zines leading you on a night time tour of the streets of Timisoara in search of the dark echoes of the past.

How it started

Back when I lived in Timisoara my step count was through the roof. I love getting lost in that city. Especially during moody weather or at night. It has this mysterious creepy vibe that I feel right at home in. I'm also extremely curious by nature so when I liked a certain spot I'd research it, see why it is the way it is. My curiosity and lurking about would garner attention from the locals there who would come see if I'm trying to figure out how to rob their neighbor or just being a nerd about the weird decorations around their windows. I heard the wildest stories like that, not necessarily rooted in the actual history of the place but on urban legends and misinterpreted bits of info. I would also sometimes hang around tourist groups and listen to their guides. And then there's just the creepy places that ignited my own imagination.

I quickly found out that tourists looking for directions loved these stories as much as I did and would follow me if I told them I knew more of these. I got to the point where I'd set up meetings later, after nightfall, cause ghost stories are better in the dark. I never asked for a fee, I didn't refuse donations or invitations to food and drink tho. It became my little side hustle.

But what I loved the most about this wasn't the reward, but the connection. I got to hang out with people who got excited about the things I got excited about. I got to share what I liked. And I miss it, I still wanna share these things and tell these stories.

So what's the plan?

I sat down and wrote some of the stories. Not all of them, I took out the more unhinged ones for now and I did my best to keep to a doable, not too long, tour route. Starting not too far from the Timisoara North train station and ending close to the historical brewery where, if it's not too late in the night, you can grab a pint and some food. I stuck to the stories that put the history of the city in a bit of context, with a few fun lighthearted urban legends in between.

Each story will be a self contained zine and I'll make a way to keep them in a bundle. I'm gonna use the same format that I'll settle one for the Staigdin project. That way this smaller project will also serve as a proof of concept for those zines. Initially I intended to illustrate these by hand in my ballpoint pen style. But that's going to take too much focus away from Staigdin - I'm terrible, I wanna do 7000 projects at the same time and do them all THE HARD WAY which is stupid. So I won't be doing that. Instead I'll be using photographs, since I got back into photography anyway. It's a good opportunity to practice photographing for a specific feel.

I have a trip planned to go and take the photos I need. There's only one problem: It's in August. During the day. In Timisoara. It will most likely be hot as fuck and sunny and most definitely not a spooky night. So unless the weather decides to go goth on me I'm a bit unsure if I'll manage to capture the vibe I want. I do plan on shooting black and white but we'll see. If this fails, at least I'll make a note of really good frames for the objectives and go back in December when it gets dark early and snap them then. Or, if I really like the composition, I might digitally paint over them. There's no rule it has to be photography.

To be continued...