An Alber Camus quote from “The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays” about solitude goes like this: “In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion.”

Over the past few years I have noticed a recurring theme in my street photography. I am dragged to urban landscapes, people, moments, gestures in life around me that are full of that sense of solitude. Those moments when it looks as if someone has turned away from the surrounding world, probably in order to understand it, to contemplate, or just to take a breath from the hustle and bustle, to turn towards his or hers inner world. 

Solitude is often associated with sadness but for me it’s quite the contrary. I seek for such moments as a proof for our existence.

​To be alone, is a natural need. Like breathing, sleeping and eating. To immerse yourself in that feeling of being only you. To enjoy those moments when you just stop, isolate yourself from the world around you… even just for a second. And then everything continues. You keep on going with the flow. (Photos and text Martin Iliev)

I wander every day in the streets between people, between the life that is hiding and the life that is so plainly revealed. I'm going without a destination, a thought, or an excuse. My only priority is the act, what happens, with or without me. The visible reality is nothing but plausible images, such as those born by a director-creator in a performance! (Photos and text by Makis Makris)
 
"I feel that the world is a theatrical performance, given only to me, which I have the only ticket, of the only seat".  Garry Winogrand

​Flori de Liliac

As vrea sa scriu o poveste despre acest loc, despre frumusetea si unicitatea lui, insa ma simt incapabila sa descriu in cuvinte amestecul de sentimente ce ma poarta cand sunt aici. As vrea sa pot scrie despre fragilitatea clipei si despre importanta ei. As vrea sa scriu despre cum soarele a disparut subit innecat intr-o mare de nori. Ma proiectez in ploaia de primavara care spala si reinvie tot. Flori albe de liliac se amesteca cu mirosul ploii si cu rasetele copiilor. Curand se lasa seara.Pe copii ii vad aievea amestecati intre flori albe, pe pamantul rece si ud. 

Cunosc acest sat de multe vreme, si totusi sunt atat de departe inca de esenta lui. Incerc sa captez in imagini franturi din frumusetea lui, din ceea ce vad si simt cand sunt aici. Vreau sa captez efemeritatea clipei, bucuria vietii dar si singuratatea fiintei noastre, sa modelez si remodelez tot ce vad si tot ce traiesc cand ma aflu aici. In curand intinderea amuteste complet in noapte si in aer persista un miros de flori de liliac.
   
Lilac flowers

I would like to write a story about this place, about its beauty and uniqueness, but I feel unable to describe in words the mixture of feelings that bear in me when I am here. I wish I could write about the fragility of the moment and its importance. I want to write about how the sun suddenly disappeared drowned in a sea of ​​clouds. I'm projecting myself in the spring rain that washes and revives everything. White lilac flowers mix with the smell of rain and  with children's laughter. Soon it will be dark. I see the children mingle between white flowers on the cold and wet ground.

I have known this village for a long time now, and yet I am so far away from its essence. I try to capture in pictures its beauty, and what I see and feel when I'm here. I want to capture the ephemeral moment, the joy of life and the loneliness of our being, to model and remodel everything I see and everything I live when I am here. Soon, the land is quiet as the night falls, and there is a smell of lilac flowers that persists in the air.
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(Photographs and text by Iris Tusa)